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UC-NRLF 


THE  REGULATION  OF 
COMMERCIALIZED  VICE 

An  Analysis  of  the  Transition  From 

Segregation  to  Repression  in 

the  United  States 


BY 
JOSEPH  MAYER,  M.A. 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE 

REQUIREMENTS  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE 

FACULTY  OF  POLITICAL  SCIENCE 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


New  York 

THE  KLEBOLD  PRESS 
1922 


Copyright,  1922 

by 
Joseph  Mayer 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

Preface 5 

I.    The  Passing  of  Segregation  9 

Reasons  for  the  Change    10 

Vice  Commissions  Find  Segregation  a  Failure 10 

Results  of  Cosing  Districts 12 

II.    Vice  Control  as  Measured  by  Legislation  13 

Regarding  Sufficiency  of  Existing  Laws  13 

Degree  of  Compulsion  Behind  Different  Laws  14 

Law  Enforcement  Difficulties    15 

Legislation  and  Public  Opinion   17 

Unofficial  Law  Enforcement  Bodies 19 

Summary  21 

III.  New  Policies  Recommended  by  Vice  Commissions   23 

Brief  Summary  of  Measures   23 

Representative  Nature  of  Cities  Compared 26 

Recommendations  Broadly  Classified 27 

IV.  Development     of     Repressive     State     Legislation     for     the 

Control  of  Vice   28 

Eight  Outstanding  Vice  Laws 29 

Summary  of  Development  30 

V.  A  Year's  Progress  in  State  Social  Hygiene  Legislation..  33 
Social  Hygiene  Bills  Introduced  and  Laws  Enacted 

in  1917 33 

Comparison  with  Vice  Commission  Recommendations 

and  with  Eight  Outstanding  Vice  Laws  35 

VI.     Municipal  Measures  of  Vice  Control  37 

Measures  in  38  American  Cities  in  1917-18 37 

Municipal  Law  Enforcement  Problems  42 

VII.     Summary  and  Conclusion    45 

The  Repression  of  Vice  45 

The  Prevention  of  Vice  48 

Bibliography    51 


3 

4G9007 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

PAGE 

Table  1:  Indicating  the  Names  of  25  Cities  undertaking  Vice 
Investigations,  Population  in  1910,  Year  of  Investigation,  and 
Year  of  Closing  of  District 11 

Table  2:  Recommendations  of  Vice  Commissions,  Indicating 
Percentage  and  Actual  Number  of  Commissions  Recom- 
mending the  Various  Measures , 24 

Table  3:  Year  of  First  Adoption,  by  States  and  Territories, 
of  Eight  Outstanding  Social  Hygiene  Laws 31 

Table  4 :     Municipal  Measures  Relating  to  Social  Hygiene  38 


'grraph:  Representing  Development  of  Eight  Outstanding  Social 
Hygiene  Laws,  and  giving  Total  Number  of  States  Having 
Such  Laws,  by  Years  since  1890 8 


PREFACE 

In  the  past  generation  public  opinion  in  the  United  States 
has  undergone  an  important  change  in  its  attitude  towards 
vice  control.  Following  earlier  unsuccessful  attempts  be- 
tween 1870  and  1900  in  New  York,  St.  Louis,  Philadelphia, 
Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Baltimore  and  other  cities  to  regulate 
or  legalize  prostitution,1  most  American  municipalities  had 
settled  down  to  a  policy  of  confining  the  social  evil  within 
certain  more  or  less  clearly  defined  red-light  districts. - 
Under  then  existing  municipal  ordinances  and  state  laws  the 
keepers  and  inmates  of  bawdy  houses  were  subjected  to  a 
nominal  fine  or  imprisonment,  which  measures,  however, 
were  in  the  main  enforced  only  outside  of  the  district.  .On 
the  one  hand,  no  effective  measures  had  yet  been  framed 
to  curtail  the  efforts  of  those  who  were  continually  recruit- 
ing new  victims  for  the  brothel  nor  to  permanently  close 
bawdy  houses  themselves.  On  the  other  hand,  the  general 
sentiment  was  to  the  effect  that  the  complete  repression  of 
vice  was  neither  possible  nor  desirable.3  Today  the  situ- 
ation is  quite  different,  and  a  far-reaching  policy  of  repres- 
sion is  in  force  the  country  over. 

When  asked  about  this  metamorphosis,  students  of  the 
subject  have  invariably  answered  that  the  change  has  been 
from  an  attitude  of  toleration  to  one  of  repression ;  but 
such  general  observations  often  tend  to  obscure  more  than 
they  clarify,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  feeling  of  the  average 
man  that  if  public  opinion  can  change  from  toleration  to 
repression  it  can  just  as  easily  change  back  again  from 
repression  to  toleration. 


1See  report  referred  to  in  footnote  on  the  following  page,  i.  e., 
"Prostitution  in  the  United  States,"  pp.  26-32. 

2See  idem,  pp.  102-122,  which  contain  an  account  of  segregation  in 
American  cities  with  especial  reference  to  conditions  in  red-light  dis- 
tricts before  these  were  closed.  See  also  vice  reports  of  cities  listed 
in  bibliography,  infra. 

3See  Seligman,  Edwin  R.  A.,  LL.D.,  "The  Social  Evil  with  Special 
Reference  to  Conditions  Existing  in  the  City  of  New  York,"  Second 
Edition  Revised,  New  York,  1912,  pp.  215-245,  which  contain  an  excel- 
lent statement  of  American  public  sentiment  during  the  decade  from 
1902  to  1912. 


That  every  sign  points  to  the  present  change  being  a 
permanent  one  is  little  realized,  chiefly  because  its  exact 
nature  has  never  previously  been  analyzed  nor  its  extent 
measured.  Many  studies  have  been  made  of  the  nature 
and  extent  of  vice  conditions  existing  at  a  certain  time  in 
a  given  locality,  such  as  the  municipal  vice  investigations 
undertaken  by  various  cities  of  the  United  States,  espe- 
cially between  1910  and  1915,  and  the  more  recent  studies 
of  vice  conditions  in  Europe  and  the  United  States  carried 
on  by  the  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene.  Practically  no  effort, 
however,  has,  up  to  the  present  time,  been  put  forth  to 
measure  the  change  in  policy  itself  which  has  been  taking 
place  gradually  in  the  past  generation  and  more  rapidly 
in  the  past  decade.  The  present  study  constitutes  a  con- 
structive effort  to  measure  this  change. 

It  was  while  engaged  upon  the  most  recent1  of  the  gen- 
eral investigations  mentioned  above,  that  the  author  be- 
came convinced  of  the  need  of  making  such  a  study  as 
the  present  one.  To  adequately  measure  the  change  in 
public  policy  that  was  taking  place,  it  was  necessary,  how- 
ever, to  find  some  basis  of  comparison.  This  was  fortu- 
nately at  hand  in  the  recommendations  set  forth  in  thirty 
municipal  vice  reports,  mentioned  above  as  having  been 
made  public  in  the  main  between  1910  and  1915.  What 
changes  in  the  then  current  policy  these  commissions 
recommended,  after  a  serious  study  of  existing  conditions, 
obviously  represented  the  substance  of  what  was  more  or 
less  lacking  then  and  was  looked  forward  to  as  a  remedy. 

In  1917  the  author  prepared  a  summary  of  vice  com- 
mission recommendations.  This  was  subsequently  pub- 
lished2 with  certain  general  observations  regarding  the 
change  public  sentiment  was  undergoing.  These  observa- 
tions were  based,  on  the  one  hand,  upon  an  examination 
of  the  vice  reports  embodying  the  recommendations  and  of 
official  publications  of  agencies  organized  to  study  the 
social  evil,  and  on  the  other  hand,  upon  a  study  of  vice 
conditions  in  forty  typical  American  cities  in  1917,  upon 
which  study,  as  already  mentioned,  the  author  was  at  the 
time  engaged.  In  the  report  growing  out  of  this  study, 
recently  published,  is  found  an  analysis  of  the  significance 
of  these  vice  reports  and  an  account  of  their  content.3 

^'Prostitution  in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  1 :  Prior  to  the  Entrance  of 
the  United  States  into  the  World  War.  Publications  of  the  Bureau  of 
Social  Hygiene.  The  Century  Co.,  New  York,  by  Howard  B.  Woolston. 

2See  Social  Hygiene,  April,  1918,  pp.  201-203.  See  also  Chapter  III 
of  the  present  study. 

3See  Woolston,  op.  cit.,  especially  Ch.  V.  and  tables  at  end  of  that 
chapter. 

6 


In  order  to  confirm  the  general  observations  then  made, 
viz.,  that  in  the  past  decade  the  cities  and  states  of  the 
United  States  had  been  very  generally  enacting  into  law 
the  measures  of  vice  control  suggested  by  said  vice  com- 
missions —  so  that  these  recommendations,  with  slight 
modifications,  can  be  regarded  as  the  detailed  elements  of 
the  new  public  policy  in  force  today  —  the  author  examined 
social  hygiene  measures  proposed  and  enacted  by  the  vari- 
ous states  and  territories  holding  legislative  sessions  during 
1917,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  more  particularly  the 
detailed  nature  of  such  laws,  and  made  a  further  study  of 
the  measures  of  vice  control  actually  in  force  in  representa- 
tive American  cities  in  1917-18. 

Results  of  these  studies2  set  forth  in  the  following  pages, 
bore  out  conclusively  the  general  observations  previously 
made  and  rendered  it  possible  to  describe  in  detail  the 
elements  of  the  new  policy  of  control.  The  outstanding 
features  of  this  new  policy  were  traced  as  far  back  as 
1890,  and  their  development  up  to  the  very  present  is 
graphically  depicted  in  the  chart  on  the  next  page.1 

The  conclusions  are  not  only  that  a  new  public  policy 
of  vice  control  has  emerged,  but  also  that  it  has  already 
become  thoroughly  established  in  state  laws,  municipal 
ordinances,  and  the  regulations  of  various  boards  and  com- 
missions, so  that  it  is  unthinkable  to  contemplate  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  return  to  the  conditions  of  ten  years  ago  when 
toleration  and  segregation  were  the  accepted  standards. 
Such  a  return  would  mean  the  repeal  of  hundreds  of  state 
laws  and  municipal  ordinances  now  upon  our  statute  books. 

Grateful  acknowledgement  for  valuable  aid  and  sugges- 
tions is  hereby  made  to  Professor  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay 
of  Columbia  University  in  whose  seminar  in  Social  and 
Industrial  Legislation  the  plan  for  the  present  study  was 
formulated,  and  to  Dr.  Howard  B.  Woolston  with  whom 
the  author  was  associated  in  the  investigation  of  Prostitu- 
tion in  the  United  States  at  the  same  time  he  was  pursuing 
graduate  work  at  Columbia.  Appreciation  is  also  expressed 
to  the  officials  of  the  American  Social  Hygiene  Association 
for  their  courtesy  in  allowing  the  author  the  use  of  the 
Association's  files  and  staff  for  the  purpose  of  collecting 
data  and  for  sending  out  schedules  of  inquiry. 


details  regarding  this  chart,  see  Ch.  IV,  infra. 
2Cf.     Articles  by  the  author:   "Social  Hygiene  Legislation  in  1917," 
Social  Hygiene,  January,  1919;  and  "Social  Legislation  and  Vice  Con- 
trol," Social  Hygiene,  July,  1919.     Portions  of  these  articles,  somewhat 
modified,  form  part  of  Chapters  II,  V  and  VI  of  the  present  study. 


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2 

The    Regulation  of    Commercialized   Vice 

An  Analysis  of  the  Transition  from  Segregation 

to  Repression  in  the  United  States 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  PASSING  OF  SEGREGATION 

Ten  years  ago  segregation  was  an  accepted  policy  of  vice 
control.  Certain  stock  reasons  were  given,  murmurings  of 
which  are  still  heard  here  and  there.  Practically  every 
large  city  in  the  United  States  had  its  di-strict.  In  fact, 
New  York  and  Chicago  had  several.  To  question  segrega- 
tion was  to  be  branded  either  a  fool  or  a  fanatic. 

Since  that  day  a  remarkable  change  has  taken  place. 
Over  two  hundred  cities1,  including  every  one  over  100,000 
population2,  have  closed  their  districts.  Not  a  trace  of 
one  (much  less  several)  is  to  be  found  in  New  York  or 
Chicago.  The  notorious  "Barbary  Coast"  of  San  Francisco 
and  arrogant  "Storyville"  of  New  Orleans  are  no  more. 

This  is  a  significant  change.  Nor  was  it  brought  on  by 
military  necessity.  The  few  remaining  strongholds  of  vice 
were  being  shaken  to  their  very  foundations  even  before 
the  United  States  entered  the  war.  The  War  Department 
had  simply  taken  the  new  order  at  the  flood  tide  and  had 
made  the  most  of  it.  At  the  time  the  training  camps  of 
the  United  States  were  rilled  with  the  best  part  of  our 
young  manhood,  Major  Bascom  Johnson,  Director  of  the 
Division  of  Law  Enforcement,  War  Department  Commis- 
sion on  Training  Camp  Activities,  said :  "There  is  today 
'not  a  single  red  light  district  within  five  miles  of  any 
cantonment  or  military  training  camp  or  naval  station 

]Up  to  January  1,  1918,  178  districts  had  been  accounted  for  as 
closed  and  from  July,  1917,  to  September,  1918,  the  War  Department 
had  closed  approximately  100.  A  complete  list  can  be  had  through 
the  American  Social  Hygiene  Association. 

2On  January  1,  1918,  out  of  62  cities  with  over  100,000  population 
(1910  census),  60  had  closed  their  districts.  The  remaining  two  were 
closed  soon  thereafter. 


where  any  considerable  number  of  soldiers  or  sailors  are 
training."1    The  red  light  district  has  passed. 

REASONS  FOR  THE  CHANGE 

One  naturally  asks:  "Why  the  change?"  There  are 
a  number  of  contributing  causes,  but  several  stand  out  un- 
mistakably. The  predecessors  of  the  American  Social  Hy- 
giene Association  had  for  some  time  been  preparing  the 
way.  Local  societies  were  organized  and  American  com- 
munities were  urged  to  make  a  serious  study  of  vice  con- 
ditions. With  the  coordination  of  these  activities  in  the 
above  mentioned  Association,  a  concerted  program  of  action 
along  educational,  medical,  and  law  enforcement  lines  was 
definitely  launched  and  carried  into  effect.  Another  cause 
was  the  discovery  of  the  organism  of,  and  the  treatment 
for  syphilis,  which  showed  the  futility  of  medical  inspec- 
tion2 and  changed  the  attitude  of  the  medical  profession. 
Still  a  third  major  cause  was  the  extensive  studies  made 
by  the  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene,  of  conditions  first  in  New 
York  City  and  then  in  Europe.  To  European  experience 
American  advocates  of  segregation  and  regulation  were  con- 
stantly pointing.  The  results  of  the  Bureau's  researches  were 
both  startling  and  clarifying.  They  proved  beyond  dispute 
that  abroad — where  such  a  system  of  control  ought  to  suc- 
ceed if  anywhere,  since  police  action  is  summary  and  auto- 
cratic and  not  subject  to  politics  and  popular  control  as 
here  in  the  United  States — regulation3  was  an  absolute 
failure  and  was  being  abandoned.  As  for  segregation — it 
had  long  since  been  discarded. 

As  a  result  of  and  in  connection  with  these  activities  and 
studies,  city  after  city  in  the  United  States  instituted  vice 
investigations,  two  score  in  less  than  a  decade.  Many  of 
the  men  appointed  on  these  investigating  bodies  held  the 
then  still  accepted  theory  of  segregation,  but  without  ex- 
ception these  finished  their  labors  with  an  absolute  reversal 
of  conviction.  The  disclosures  left  no  alternative.  As  the 
facts  became  known,  public  opinion  began  to  consolidate, 
until  today  the  revolution  is  complete. 

VICE  COMMISSIONS  FIND  SEGREGATION  A  FAILURE 

What  were  the  disclosures  that  caused  such  a  metamor- 
phosis? Simply  these:  It  had  become  patent  that  segrega- 
tion did  nothing  that  was  claimed  for  it.  On  the  contrary, 

luNext  Steps,"  Social  Hygiene,  January,  1918.  Cf.  also  Woolston 
op.  cit.,  pp.  129-130,  where  the  observation  is  made  that  segregation  v/as 
passing  in  1917. 

2Cf.  Footnote,  next  page. 

3Cf.  "The  Regulation  of  Prostitution  in  Europe,"  by  Abraham 
Flexner,  Social  Hygiene,  December,  1914. 

10 


conditions  flagrant  and  intolerable  had  come  in  its  wake. 
Segregation  had  really  never  segregated.  Regulation  and 
medical  inspection1  proved  to  be  failures,  and  the  district 
the  most  virulent  source  of  venereal  infection.  The  district 
enabled  vice  to  organize  on  a  vast  scale  and  greatly  augment 
its  traffic.  The  resultant  advertisement  made  vice  more 
easy  of  access  and  provided  a  source  of  sexual  brutalization 
and  degeneracy.  Segregation  corrupted  the  police  force, 
stimulated  illegal  sale  of  liquor,  increased  crime  and  de- 
bauchery, and  fostered  sexual  perversion. 

Surely  this  was  a  great  enough  indictment  to  give  any 
one  pause.  Similar  indictments  were  rendered  in  city  after 
city  until  the  most  stubborn  exponents  of  the  established 
theory  were  silenced.  Every  city  undertaking  an  investi- 
gation worthy  of  the  name  abolished  its  district.  Nor  has 
any  gone  back  to  it. 

The  following  list  comprehends  American  cities  in  which 
definite  vice  investigations  were  made  up  to  1916.  The 
table  speaks  for  itself. 

Table  1 :    Vice  Investigations  and  Closing  of  Districts. 


PLACE 

POPULATION 
1910 

i  i 

g§- 

*§ 

3B> 
>< 

YEAR  OF  CLOSING 
OF  DISTRICT 

PLACE 

POPULATION 
1910 

YEAR  OF  INVES- 
TIGATION 

IYEAR  OF  CLOSING 
OF  DISTRICT 

Atlanta        

154,839 

1912 

1912 

Little  Rock  

45,941 

T9T2 

1913 

Baltimore-  
Bav  Citv 

558,485 
45,l66 

1913 
1913 

1915 
1913 

Louisville  

Minneapolis—  . 

223,928 

301,408 

1915 
I9II 

1917 
1913 

Bridge  po  rt 

IO2,O54 

I9IS 

1915 

Newark. 

347,469 

1914 

1917 

Chicago 

2,185,283 

IQIO 

1912 

New  York 

4,  766,883 

IQI2 

I9l6 

Cleveland-  
Denver 

560,663 
2I3,38l 

1911 
1913 

1915 
1913 

Philadelphia  
Pittsburgh  

1,549,008 
533,905 

1912 
1912 

1913 
1914 

Elmira  

Grand  Rapids—  . 
Hartford  
Honolulu 

37,176 
H-2,571 
98,915 
52,l83 

1913 
1912 
1912 
1913 

I9J3 
1912 
1912 
1917 

Portland,  Me... 
Portland,Ore._ 
Richmond,  Va~ 
St.  Louis 

58,571 
2O7,  214 
127,628 
687,029 

1913 
1912 
1914 
1914 

1915 
1913 
1914 
1914 

Kansas  City, 
Missouri  
Lancaster  

250,000 

47,227 

1911 
1913 

1913 
1914 

Shreveport  ._  
Springfield  -  
Syracuse  

28,015 
51,678 
137,249 

I9U 
1914 
1912 

1917 
1915 
1913 

Lexington      

4O,OOO 

1915 

1915 

Toronto  

376,538 

1913 

1913 

1A  woman  might  be  pronounced  free  from  contagion  only  to  be 
infected  again  by  her  next  customer  and  thus  spread  disease  to  succeed- 
ing patrons  till  once  more  examined. 

11 


Some  200  cities  followed  the  example  of  communities 
seriously  studying  the  problem  with  the  result  that  even 
the  worst  strongholds  have  fallen. 

RESULTS  OF  CLOSING  DISTRICTS 

The  most  important  result  of  the  closing  of  districts  is 
the  changed  status  of  commercialized  vice.  In  an  "open 
town"  vice  is  either  tolerated,  regulated,  or  even  legalized. 
In  other  words,  it  is  looked  upon  as  in  some  way  necessary. 
Under  such  circumstances,  vice  is  in  the  ambiguous  posi- 
tion of  being  both  illegal  and  quasi-legal  at  the  same  time, 
so  that  any  approach  to  a  consistent  policy  is  impossible 
and  a  corrupted  police  force  is  inevitable.  The  abolition 
of  the  district  clears  the  way  for  a  constructive  program, 
definitely  puts  the  ban  of  social  disapproval  upon  sexual 
commerce,  brands  it  as  illegitimate  and  forces  it  to  stand 
in  the  same  light  as  other  offences  against  the  law,  and 
crystallizes  public  sentiment  to  back  up  persistent  law 
enforcement  and  repression. 

From  interviews,  letters,  and  questionnaires  it  was  found 
that  the  closing  of  districts  brought  two  further  results. 
Except  in  several  cities  where  no  definite  effort  was  made 
to  apprehend  dispossessed  prostitutes  or  force  them  to 
leave  the  city,  a  substantial  decrease  both  in  the  volume 
of  and  in  the  demand  for  prostitution  was  noted.  Nor  was 
there  any  increase  in  crimes  against  women.  Making 
•vice  more  inaccessible  and  removing  the  lure  and  artificial 
stimulation  of  the  red  lights  has  shown  clearly — as  far  as 
districts  are  concerned — that  the  volume  and  intensity  of 
commercialized  vice  can  be  decidedly  reduced.1 

The  wholesale  closing  of  red  light  districts  indicates 
that  a  marked  change  in  public  sentiment  has  occurred.  It 
is  the  purpose  of  the  present  study,  as  outlined  in  the 
preface,  to  examine  this  change.  In  the  next  chapter  various 
aspects  of  social  legislation  will  be  analyzed  in  some  detail 
and  succeeding  chapters  will  apply  this  analysis  to  the  task 
of  ascertaining  what  the  various  ramifications  of  the  change 
are. 


aln  one  southern  city  crime  decreased  fifty  percent  after  the  closing 
of  the  district.  See  records  on  file  with  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene,  Inc. 
See  also  Woolston,  op.  cit.,  pp.  124-130,  for  results  of  closing  districts 
during  the  decade  preceding  the  fall  of  1917. 

13 


CHAPTER  II 
VICE  CONTROL  AS  MEASURED  BY  LEGISLATION 

A  study  of  vice  control  must  necessarily  take  account  of 
social  legislation.  Certain  misconceptions  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  the  net  progress  in  solving  any  social 
problem  finds  its  most  definite  measure  in  legal  enactments 
relating  thereto.  The  social  worker  who  loses  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  legislation  has  lost  hold  on  by  far  the  most  potent 
tool  with  which  he  has  to  work. 

Three  misconceptions  have  caused  social  workers  to 
lose  confidence  in  the  value  of  legislation.  One  is  epit- 
omized in  the  expression  "we  have  laws  enough,  if  they 
were  only  enforced" ;  the  second  is  the  feeling  that  all  laws 
should  compel  obedience  and  be  enforceable  to  an  equal 
degree ;  and  the  third  is  the  idea  that  "educating  the  public" 
is  much  more  conducive  to  achieving  a  given  end  than  is 
legislation.  All  these  have  an  element  of  truth  behind  them, 
which  should  be  accurately  defined  and  properly  understood 
in  considering  legislation  as  a  measure  of  changed  public 
sentiment. 

REGARDING  SUFFICIENCY  OF  EXISTING  LAWS 

Legislation  naturally  implies  enforcement  as  well  as  en- 
actment and  adequate  means  should  be  provided  for  making 
a  law  effective,  but  inadequate  enforcement,  whatever  the 
reason,  does  not  imply  "that  we  have  laws  enough."  In 
fact,  many  laws  after  brief  experience  in  efforts  to  enforce 
them  require  amendment  or  supplementary  measures  to 
render  them  enforceable.  For  example,  here  is  a  statute  pro- 
viding for  the  imprisonment  of  convicted  prostitutes.  But, 
if  there  are  no  institutions  within  which  to  place  those 
convicted,  judges  refuse  to  sentence  and  juries  fail  to  con- 
vict. What  is  needed  is  another  measure,  establishing  deten- 
tion and  reformatory  institutions — a  "supplementary"  law 
rendering  the  other  one  enforceable. 

From  this  standpoint,  legislation  regulating  the  social 
evil  may  be  roughly  divided  into  "basic"  laws — which  set 
the  standards  and  provide  punishment  for  violation — and 

13 


"supplementary"  or  amendatory  measures  whose  purpose  it 
is  to  render  the  former  more  effective.  Political  corruption 
and  public  inertia,  or  other  more  inherent  difficulties  to  be 
brought  out,  may  further  hamper  enforcement,  but  all  of 
these  are  very  different  matters  from  saying  "we  have  laws 
enough." 

DEGREE  OF  COMPULSION  BEHIND  DIFFERENT  LAWS 

This  brings  up  the  question  of  whether  all  laws  for  the 
regulation  of  vice  should  compel  obedience  and  be  enforce- 
able to  an  equal  degree.  Social  hygiene  laws  vary  in  point 
of  strictness  or  laxity,  according  to  the  degree  of  certainty 
or  the  purpose  the  legislative  authority  had  in  framing 
them.  From  these  angles  a  law  may  be  said  to  be  compul- 
sive, formulative,  or  informative. 

Compulsion,  in  varying  degree,  is  necessarily  the  sanction 
behind  all  of  what  we  have  called  basic  laws,  but  that  the 
main  object  is  compulsive  can  be  said  of  only  one  group. 
There  are  certain  criminal  offences,  such  as  murder  or  in- 
cest, upon  which  society  has  long  since  set  an  imperative 
stamp  of  disapproval.  Regarding  them  the  opinion  of 
normal  individuals  is  practically  unanimous.  Condemna- 
tion and  punishment  are  the  chief  aims.  Evidence,  unless 
totally  lacking,  is  easily  obtained,  for  few  would  wish  to 
cover  it  up  or  avoid  giving  it.  Justice  is  quick  and  enforce- 
ment sure. 

This,  however,  is  only  one  side  of  basic  law  and  in  the 
main  is  built  on  principles  established  long  before  modern 
statutory  enactments  came  into  being.  This  side  is  cer- 
tainly important  and  necessary,  but  looking  on  its  bleak, 
punitive,  and  negative  aspects  one  fails  completely  to  get 
the  meaning  of  modern  legislation.  Modern  statutory  en- 
actments, and  especially  social  laws  which  deal  mainly  with 
health,  safety,  and  community  well-being,  are  constructive 
and  positive  and  aim  at  prevention,  habit-formation,  and  the 
fixing  of  opinion  rather  than  at  condemnation  and  punish- 
ment. Penalties  are  of  course  assessed ;  but,  as  in  regula- 
tions against  smoking  in  street  cars,  such  may  be  for  the 
purpose  mainly  of  habit-formation.  Merely  the  appearance 
before  a  police  judge  with  warning  not  to  repeat  the  viola- 
tion might  be  considered  a  sufficient  mental  and  moral 
stimulant  without  resorting  even  to  the  assessment  of  a 
fine.  There  is  a  wide  gap  indeed  between  the  compulsive 
purpose  and  power  of  an  informative  law,  through  which  a 
public  lavatory  is  placarded  and  certain  information  is  thus 
made  available  to  those  who  will  read,  and  a  law  against 

14 


murder  or  incest  which  results  in  swift  condemnation  and 
punishment. 

And,  in  between  these  two  extremes  stands  the  vast  bulk 
of  modern  social  legislation,  with  varying  degree  of  en- 
forceability  and  compulsive  power,  formuiative  enactments, 
habit-forming  and  opinion-fixing  laws  —  which  must  take 
into  consideration  unformed  and  differing  opinions,  con- 
flicting interests  and  calculated  evasions,  new  and  untried 
channels  of  enforcement  —  a  thousand  and  one  complexities, 
from  which  the  older  type  of  law  is  quite  free.  Spitting 
in  public  places,  exceeding  the  speed  limit,  soliciting  for 
prostitution,  truancy  from  school,  employing  a  child  under 
fourteen  illegally  —  such  are  typical  subjects  of  modern  social 
legislation  and  regarding  which  no  cut-and-dried  method 
of  enforcement  or  administrative  procedure  can  be  found. 
The  element  of  truth,  therefore,  behind  the  first  two  of  the 
misconceptions  mentioned  is  that  there  are  certain  problems 
and  difficulties  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  modern  social 
legislation. 

LAW  ENFORCEMENT  DIFFICULTIES 

Let  us  briefly  examine  some  of  these  difficulties  and  com- 
plexities. Among  them  political  corruption  and  public  in- 
ertia hold  a  recognized  place.  Corruption  or  graft  is  a 
prolific  hindrance  to  proper  law  enforcement.  Where  the 
mayor  of  a  city  or  other  officials  have  been  elected  to  office 
with  the  aid  of  "entrenched  interests,"  where  dishonest  and 
inefficient  police  or  court  officers  are  subject  to  bribery, 
where  court  rulings  or  the  disposition  of  cases  are  made 
to  serve  questionable  ends,  where  the  public  is  inert  or  con- 
tinues in  the  attitude  of  "let  George  do  it"  —  corruption  and 
graft  are  bound  to  be  obstacles  to  law  enforcement. 

Furthermore,  a  democracy  like  ours  implies  representative 
government  and  majority  rule.  Very  few  laws  are  enacted 
with  the  unanimous  approval  of  the  people's  representatives, 
and  where  a  bare  majority  secures  the  passage  of  a  measure, 
there  is  a  large  minority  to  contend  against  in  enforcement.1 
Within  this  large  minority,  prejudice,  conservatism,  ignor- 
ance, and  studied  misinformation  circulated  by  "interests" 
affected  must  be  combatted.  If  the  measure  aims  to  correct 
a  social  maladjustment  or  evil,  a  part  of  this  minority  will 
be  an  "entrenched  interest"  whose  business  will  be  ma- 
terially damaged  and  perhaps  destroyed  by  the  new  law. 
Such  an  "interest"  can  always  be  depended  upon  to  bring 
pressure  to  bear  to  defeat  the  measure  and,  failing  in  this, 


present  attitude  among  many  people  toward  the  federal  pro- 
hibition amendment,  even  after  that  instrument  has  become  a  funda- 
mental part  of  the  law  of  our  land,  is  an  example  of  this. 

15 


to  attempt  to  secure  seemingly  harmless  changes  before 
passage  which  will  remove  the  sting  or  provide  a  loophole 
for  evasion.  This  should  not  mean  discouragement  for  the 
social  worker  but  rather  renewed  vigilance  and  the  secur- 
ing of  an  amendment  or  new  law  at  the  next  session  which 
will  be  more  effective. 

If  the  measure  originally  passes  unmutilated,  such  an 
"interest,"  fighting  for  its  life,  will  employ  skilled  attorneys 
to  find  a  way  of  evading  it  or  of  blocking  enforcement. 
This  shows  the  necessity,  in  every  field  that  combats  long 
established  social  wrong,  of  unofficial  organizations  (vigil- 
ance committees,  if  one  pleases),  more  actively  engaged  in 
seeing  that  the  said  law  is  enforced  than  the  "interest"  is 
in  seeing  that  it  is  not.  If  the  "interest"  finds  a  way  of 
evading  the  law,  the  measure  may  have  to  be  amended  sev- 
eral times  before  the  fight  is  won  and  the  "entrenched  in- 
terest" is  made  amenable  to  the  law  or  put  out  of  business. 

In  addition,  the  jury  system — as  indispensable  as  it  un- 
questionably is — presents  obvious  difficulties  for  law  en- 
forcement in  communities  hostile  to  a  given  piece  of  social 
legislation.  This  applies,  of  course,  to  petit  or  common 
juries  rather  than  to  grand  juries  which  are  subject  largely 
to  the  public  prosecutor.  Common  juries  reflect  the  senti- 
ment of  the  particular  local  community  from  which  they  are 
drawn;  and  although  the  state  legislature  may  pass  a  very 
admirable  law  and  judges  uniformly  uphold  it,  juries  may 
still  hamper  enforcement  by  refusing  to  convict  under  it. 

Another  difficulty  is  the  fact  that  modern  social  legisla- 
tion is  still  in  a  highly  experimental  stage,  and  proper  and 
adequate  methods  both  of  formulation  and  administrative 
procedure  are  still  in  the  process  of  being  worked  out. 
The  careful  and  painstaking  work  bestowed  upon  labor 
legislation  is  already  being  followed  in  other  social  fields, 
but  much  has  yet  to  be  done  before  a  consistent  and  well- 
drawn  code  for  social  legislation  is  forthcoming.  The  legis- 
lative draftsman  has  become  a  necessity  and  every  social 
organization  should  utilize  one.  He  should  be  fully  equipped 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  limitations  and  possibilities  of 
channels  for  enforcing  the  remedial  measure,  as  well  as 
with  a  knowledge  of  the  need  it  is  sought  to  supply. 

Questions  of  personal  rights,  constitutional  limitations, 
delegated  responsibility,  legal  phraseology,  and  the  like, 
must  always  be  faced,  and  the  slightest  disregard  of  any 
of  these  frequently  invalidates  an  otherwise  excellent  meas- 
ure or  renders  its  enforcement  practically  impossible.  In 
this  connection  it  is  often  necessary  to  know  how  much 
to  secure  through  the  state  legislature  and  what  to  leave  to 
the  regulatory  power  of  the  board  or  commission  called 

10 


upon  to  enforce  the  general  provision.  There  is  an  in- 
creased tendency  to  leave  the  working  out  of  detailed  regu- 
lations to  subordinate  bodies  and  to  secure  only  a  general 
law  from  the  state.  This  makes  for  increased  elasticity 
and  enforceability ;  but  the  board  or  commission  to  which 
responsibility  is  delegated  must  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
measure  it  is  sought  to  enforce,  or  further  difficulty  is  en- 
countered. 

Such  are  roughly  some  of  the  principles  and  problems  of 
modern  social  legislation,  both  of  enactment  and  enforce- 
ment, but  there  is  nothing  here  to  discourage  regarding  the 
effi'cacy  of  legislation  as  such  nor  to  lead  us  to  chase  a  will- 
o'-the-wisp  for  a  substitute.  It  should  rather  make  us  realize 
that  we  must  still  further  sharpen  and  perfect  the  most  ade- 
quate tool  there  is  for  shaping  and  enforcing  the  corporate 
will,  viz.,  well-defined  and  properly  executed  laws. 

LEGISLATION  AND  PUBLIC  OPINION 

The  discouraging  aspects  of  law  enforcement  problems 
have  led  to  the  question  of  whether  "educating  the  public" 
is  not  more  conducive  to  achieving  a  given  end  than  is 
legislation.  In  one  sense  this  statement  is  a  true  expression 
of  fact,  in  that  education  is  a  very  important  matter  and 
should  doubtless  be  considered  both  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  social  legislation.  The  value  of  educating  public 
opinion  through  the  press,  through  lectures,  pamphlets,  or 
otherwise  cannot  be  overemphasized;  but  to  set  such  edu- 
cation over  against  legislation,  as  though  they  came  from 
widely  differing  sources  and  had  little  in  common,  shows 
a  wrong  point  of  view.  In  the  first  place,  with  reference 
to  the  correction  of  a  given  social  maladjustment,  remedial 
legislation  should  naturally  be  the  outcome  of  a  better  in- 
formed public  and  the  capping  stone  of  the  work  of  correct- 
ing the  maladjustment.  Instead  of  having  very  little  in  com- 
mon with  public  opinion,  modern  social  legislation  achieves 
enactment  through  public  opinion.  Legislation  is  the  cor- 
porate body  politic  expressing  itself,  through  appointed 
representatives  and  set  channels,  in  rules  of  action.  More- 
over, modern  social  legislation  is  in  itself  an  element — and 
a  very  important  one — in  the  very  process  of  educating 
public  opinion,  toward  which  end  informative  laws  (such 
as  for  example  those  providing  for  the  dissemination  of 
information  regarding  venereal  disease  perils)  are  primarily 
directed.  As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  vast  bulk  of  modern 
social  enactments  are  formulative  measures — habit-forming 
and  opinion-fixing  laws — which  are  enacted  not  merely  for 
the  punishment  of  certain  wrong-doers  but  more  particularly 
for  the  guidance  of  the  average  respectable  citizen.  Social 

17 


legislation,  in  standardizing  and  fixing  the  common  man- 
date, is  itself  an  aid  in  educating  public  opinion. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  the  idea  that  educating  public 
opinion  must  proceed  in  some  mysterious  extra-legal  fashion 
that  one  should  take  issue.  In  fact  the  public  school  system 
itself,  through  which  the  citizenship  of  tomorrow  is 
educated,  rests  on  a  legal  foundation — is  made  possible 
through  a  law  or  a  series  of  laws.  Indeed,  where  public 
education  proceeds  through  legally  established  channels, 
it  can  always  be  more  effective  than  where  its  work  must 
be  carried  on  unofficially  and  sporadically.  The  lecture, 
the  chart,  the  stereopticon  slide,  the  motion  picture,  the 
pamphlet,  the  instruction  in  the  class  room — these  can  be 
utilized  by  officially  established  institutions  better  than  by 
private  organizations.  Witness  the  far-reaching  program 
the  Section  on  Educational  Activities  of  the  United  States 
Public  Health  Service  was  able  to  launch  as  a  result  of  the 
passage  of  the  Chamberlain-Kahn  bill1  to  fight  venereal 
diseases. 

Public  opinion  should  be  continually  educated,  and  every 
available  channel  (official  or  otherwise)  is  pertinent  towards 
this  end.  Along  a  number  of  lines  the  public  does  not  know 
its  own  mind,  and  there  will  always  be  problems  to  puzzle. 
Nor  is  it  ever  unanimous  about  anything  pertaining  to  mod- 
ern social  difficulties.  It  must  not  be  overlooked,  however, 
that  one  of  the  most  effective  ways  the  social  mind  has  of 
formulating  itself  and  of  fixing  opinion  is  to  set  a  legislative 
standard  and,  through  the  resulting  clarifying  and  habit- 
fixing  process,  coming  to  a  better  formed  and  more  matured 
idea  of  what  it  is  really  trying  to  educate  itself  to  do. 
Social  legislation,  then,  far  from  being  quite  separate  from, 
must  be  considered  an  integral  part  of  the  work  of  educating 
public  opinion  through  the  fixing  of  better  social  habits. 

The  element  of  truth,  however,  in  certain  misunderstand- 
ings on  this  score,  lies  in  the  fact  that  public  interest  too 
often  subsides  after  the  passage  of  a  law,  as  though  the 
task  of  educating  the  public  along  a  given  line  ended  there. 
Frequently,  after  the  first  wave  of  sentiment  demanding 
better  conditions  has  resulted  in  a  remedial  measure,  the 
public  has  seemingly  expected  the  law  to  do  the  rest  un- 
aided. But  the  interests  affected  will  always  put  up  a  fight, 
nor  can  a  law  enforce  itself  against  the  natural  opposition 
all  corrective  legislation  meets.  Legislative  experiment  to 
fix  opinion  and  shape  better  social  habits  cannot  succeed 
adequately  unless  educational  efforts  continue  for  the  pur- 
pose of  consolidating  the  gains  made  and  of  securing  a 

by   President  Wilson,  July  9,  1918. 
18 


more  generous  acceptance  of  the  new  social  standards. 
Constant  alertness  and  vigilance,  on  the  part  of  those  in- 
dividuals already  educated  up  to  the  remedial  measures 
adopted,  are  necessary  both  to  keep  some  of  the  hesitant 
ones  in  line  and  to  win  over  the  rest. 

With  this  double  aim,  as  well  as  for  the  purpose  of  shaping 
unsettled  opinion  to  the  point  of  making  a  legislative  experi- 
ment— since  on  many  matters  public  opinion  has  not  made 
up  its  mind  even  to  that  extent — individual  as  well  as  organ- 
ized collective  effort  is  always  necessary.  Toward  this  end 
vigilance  societies  play  their  proper  and  important  part. 

UNOFFICIAL  LAW  ENFORCEMENT  BODIES 

Such  unofficial  agencies  for  combating  vice  have  been 
established — under  a  variety  of  names — in  a  number  of 
American  cities  and  were  found  in  one-third  of  the  cities 
interrogated  in  connection  with  data  summarized  in  a  sub- 
sequent chapter.1  In  several  cities  such  organizations  have 
already  been  superseded  by  official  boards  or  commissions, 
but  the  need  of  the  unofficial  society  supported  by  volun- 
tary contributions  is  always  urgent.  The  work  that  such  a 
society  can  do  varies  with  the  degree  of  enlightenment  in 
a  given  community,  but  in  general  it  will  run  along  the 
lines  of  nullifying  the  efforts  of  "entrenched  interests";  of 
instituting  proceedings  against  law  breakers,  especially  in 
connection  with  the  injunction  and  abatement  law;  of  co- 
ordinating the  work  of  various  officials  in  whose  hands 
the  work  of  enforcing  the  law  lies ;  of  locating  weak  points 
in  the  machinery  of  law-enforcement  and  seeing  to  it  that 
these  are  remedied;  of  warning  recalcitrant  officials  and 
of  bringing  ouster  proceedings  where  necessary ;  and  of 
educating  the  public  up  to  the  new  standards  through  the 
press,  lectures,  literature,  charts,  moving  pictures,  and  the 
like,  where  such  education  is  not  already  provided  through 
official  channels  as,  for  example,  through  the  Board  of 
Health. 

A  great  part  of  the  marked  effectiveness  of  the  injunc- 
tion and  abatement  law  in  closing  up  houses  of  ill-fame 
and  forcing  property  owners  into  a  more  careful  attitude 
regarding  the  use  their  property  is  being  put  to,  is  due  to 
the  efforts  of  the  unofficial  law  enforcement  agency,  which, 
likewise,  can  help  keep  officials  informed  as  to  other  law 
infractions.  Similarly,  where  the  courts  hold  that  the  evi- 
dence is  not  sufficient  to  convict  or  the  police  seemingly 
cannot  furnish  the  evidence,  detective  work  on  the  part  of 
a  law  enforcement  agency  can  locate  the  difficulty.  If  an 

iChapter  VI. 

19 


additional  appropriation  is  needed,  or  an  amendment  to  the 
rules  of  evidence,  or  a  supplementary  law  establishing  a 
reformatory  for  women  or  a  vice  squad — the  society  can 
call  such  matters  to  public  and  official  attention  and  have 
them  provided.  If  there  is  misunderstanding  between  the 
officials  themselves,  the  society"  can  act  as  a  coordinating 
influence.  If  some  official  is  grossly  negligent  and  refuses 
after  repeated  urging  to  do  his  duty,  the  society  can  see 
to  it  that  he  is  driven  from  office.  Public  opinion  needs 
constant  stimulation  and  enlightenment  and  the  unofficial 
society  will  probably  always  be  needed  to  pave  the  way 
and  enlighten  the  people  upon  those  things  that  are  still 
in  the  vanguard  of  progress. 

Unofficial  vigilance  and  law-enforcement  societies1  can 
and  do  play  a  large  and  necessary  part  in  the  work  of  vice 
control.  The  importance  of  the  work  done  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fourteen  of  New  York,  the  Committee  of  Fifteen 
of  Chicago,  or  the  Morals  Efficiency  Committee  of  Los 
Angles  cannot  be  overemphasized.  Such  efforts  are  part 
of  the  organized  campaign  that  must  be  constantly  waged 
against  established  abuses  and  for  the  creation  of  better 
social  habits.  The  social  hygiene  movement  has  or  has 
had  many  interests  arrayed  against  it — liquor,  drugs,  cer- 
tain property  owners  and  business  firms,  and  other  factors 
that  have  gone  to  make  commercialized  vice  one  of  the 
most  lucrative  of  enterprises.  Many- temporary  set-backs 
are  to  be  expected  before  adequate  and  enforceable  laws 
result  and  enforcement  is  uniformly  secured.  Prejudices 
as  deeply  rooted  as  life  itself  must  be  met  and  overcome. 
The  social  mind  is  already  decided  on  many  points,  but 
it  is  still  groping  for  light  on  a  number  of  exceedingly 
difficult  and  unsettled  questions.  As  part  of  the  full  social 
hygiene  program,  unofficial  efforts  are  indeed  important, 
but  they  must  always  lead  up  to  and  help  consolidate  the 
results  of  legislative  experiment,  reaction  and  considera- 
tion, further  and  more  adequate  legislative  trial,2  and  so 
on,  until  out  of  the  chaos  of  prejudice  and  misconception 
concerning  matters  sexual  will  come  a  clearer  idea  of  what 
should  constitute  a  rational  sex  life  for  both  men  and 
women.  As  this  idea  clarifies  itself,  the  irrationalities  of 
sex  can  be  more  consistently  and  thoroughly  combatted. 


iThe  organization  and  work  of  such  societies  is  fully  described  in 
a  pamphlet  (No.  182)  published  by  the  American  Social  Hygiene  Asso- 
ciation. 

2Cf.  repeated  efforts  to  perfect  the  "penalty  upon  the  place"  provision 
of  the  Liquor  Tax  Law  of  New  York,  F.  H.  Whitin  in  "Obstacles  to 
Vice  Repression,"  Social  Hygiene,  Vol.  XI,  No.  2,  April,  1916,  p.  153. 

20 


SUMMARY 

An  examination  of  the  misunderstandings  concerning  the 
value  of  legislation,  therefore,  brings  to  light  the  following 
facts:  First,  far  from  having  laws  enough,  we  are  con- 
stantly in  need  of  carefully  drawn  laws,  since  progress  in 
coping  with  any  evil  can  only  come  about  in  this  way. 
Secondly,  the  type  of  laws  often  most  needed  today  are 
supplementary  rather  than  basic  ones,  the  kind  that  provide 
more  adequate  agencies  for  law  enforcement.  Thirdly, 
there  is  not  the  same  degree  of  compulsion  behind  all  law, 
and  modern  social  legislation,  being  in  a  highly  experi- 
mental and  uncrystallized  form,  is  inherently  beset  with 
difficulties  of  enforcement.  Fourthly,  legislation  comes  into 
being  through  the  force  of  public  opinion  and  is  the  best 
reflector  of  the  public  attitude  towards  the  control  of  any 
evil,  but  public  opinion  must  be  kept  alert  and  vigilant 
if  its  mandates  expressed  in  law  are  to  be  effectively  car- 
ried out. 

Law  enactment  and  enforcement  afford  a  medium  for 
measuring  social  control.  The  degree  of  law  enforcement, 
however,  is  difficult  to  evaluate.  With  respect  to  the  en- 
forcement of  any  given  law  or  series  of  laws,  the  size  and 
hostility  of  the  minority  legislated  against,  the  attitude 
of  bench,  bar,  and  law  enforcement  officials,  the  activities 
and  power  of  the  entrenched  interests  that  are  affected,  the 
attitude  of  juries,  the  vigilance  of  law  enforcement  bodies — 
all  these  must  be  studied  and  properly  weighed.  This  is 
by  no  means  a  simple  task  nor  would  there  be  any  way  of 
determining  the  accuracy  of  the  results  of  such  a  study. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  laws 
themselves  can  be  accurately  determined,  and  the  state  of 
public  opinion  regarding  the  control  of  an  evil  can  thus 
be  .clearly  gauged.  In  the  United  States,  legislation  com- 
prehends in  the  main  state  and  federal  statutes,  and  in 
lesser  degree  city  ordinances  and  the  regulations  of  boards, 
commissions,  or  departments  possessing  delegated  legisla- 
tive power. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  it  was  pointed  out  that  a  de- 
cided change  has  occurred  in  the  past  decade  with  respect 
to  the  control  of  the  social  evil,  which  change  has  been 
plainly  marked  by  the  closing  of  red  light  districts  the 
country  over.  Segregation  has  passed  and  a  new  policy 
of  vice  control  appears  to  have  taken  its  place.  What  this 
new  policy  is,  as  seen  in  social  hygiene  legislation  enacted 
in  recent  years,  will  be  taken  up  in  the  following  chapters 
and  the  questions  of  law  enforcement  will  also  be  touched 
upon. 

The  beginning  of  a  conscious  formulation  of  a  new  policy 

21 


of  vice  control  will  be  studied  in  the  legislation  proposed 
by  vice  commissions  in  their  recommendations  a  decade 
back.  Certain  outstanding-  measures  of  vice  control  -will 
then  be  selected  from  these  recommendations  and  their 
history  traced  from  early  beginnings  a  generation  ago  to 
the  extent  of  their  existence  today  upon  the  statute  books 
of  the  several  states  of  the  union.  After  this  longitudinal 
study,  a  cross-section  will  be  taken  of  recent  state  legisla- 
tion pertaining  to  the  whole  field  of  vice  control  and  of 
supplementary  city  ordinances  and  board  regulations.  In 
conclusion,  the  vice  legislation  surveyed  is  summarized  and 
the  changed  public  opinion  reflected  therein,  epitomized. 


CHAPTER  III 

NEW  POLICIES  RECOMMENDED  BY  VICE 
COMMISSIONS 

Serious  investigations  into  vice  conditions  in  the  United 
States  were  made  in  the  main  between  1910  and  1915.1  Be- 
fore 1910  little  accurate  information  was  available  and  au- 
thorities agree  that  a  change  in  public  sentiment  regarding 
the  control  of  vice  dates  from  the  period  of  these  investiga- 
tions and  from  the  findings  that  thus  came  to  light.  Refer- 
ence to  the  importance  of  these  investigations  and  to  the 
conditions  uncovered  by  them  has  already  been  made  in  the 
preface. 

The  recommendations  of  commissions  conducting  these 
surveys,  therefore,  should  be  the  obvious  source  of  the  be- 
ginnings of  a  new  policy.  The  legislative  measures  of  vice 
control  proposed  by  the  commissions  is  an  index  of  laws 
more  or  less  generally  lacking  at  the  time  and  looked  for- 
ward to  as  a  new  method  of  control.  The  table  on  the 
next  two  pages  presents  a  list  of  these  recommendations. 

BRIEF  SUMMARY  OF  MEASURES 

The  table  does  not  include  all  the  recommendations  the 
various  commissions  set  forth,  for  quite  a  few  were  of  local 
import  solely  or  were  submitted  by  only  one  or  two  of  the 
Commissions.  The  table  comprehends  those  recommenda- 
tions on  which  more  or  less  substantial  agreement  was  in- 
dicated. 

A  comparison  is  here  made  of  the  recommendations  of 
twenty-five  cities  making  careful  investigation.  Among 
these,  there  was  unanimous  opinion  that  districts  and 
brothels  should  be  abolished,  that  vice  should  be  suppressed, 
and  that  the  laws  should  be  rigidly  enforced.  Fifteen  of 
the  twenty-five  felt  the  need  of  regulatory  measures  per- 
taining to  hotels  and  rooming  houses;  nine  with  reference 
to  saloons,  cafes,  or  dance  halls ;  ten  regarding  motion-pic- 
ture theatres  or  amusement  resorts ;  and  thirteen  pertaining 
to  parks  or  public  places.  Seventeen  advocated  the  strict 

iCf.  table  1,  p.  11. 

23 


TABLE  2:— RECOMMENDATIONS  OF  25  VICE  COMMISSIONS 

Actual 
num- 
ber of 

Percent  cities* 
,  ,  of  total  recom- 

REPRESSIVE  MEASURES  no.  of  mending 

cities       same. 
Repression  and  Law  Enforcement 

Repress  evil  and  enforce  laws  100        25 

Districts  and  Brothels 

Abolish  district   100        25 

dose  houses  100        25 

Prosecute  owners  and  proprietors  28 

Enact  Injunction  and  Abatement  Law 44        11 

Hotels  and  Rooming  Houses 

License  hotels ;  inspect,  regulate,  require  bona  fide  registra- 
tion; revoke  license  or  penalize  for  violation 48        12 

Enact  Tin  Plate  ordinance    28         7 

License  and  control  rooming  and  lodging  houses  and  revoke 

license  for  violation 44        11 

Saloons  and  Cafes 
Prohibit  connecting  rooms,  private  booths,  screens,   cur 

tains,  etc.,  and  revoke  license  for  violation 44        11 

Restrict  number  of  saloon  licenses 24         6 

Dame  Halls 

License  and  supervise  dance  halls  8 

Have  woman  officer  or  supervisor  at  dances  16          4 

Prohibit  sale  of  liquor  or  saloon  connection  through  passes, 

etc 16          4 

Motion  Pictures  and  Amusement  Places 
Censor,  supervise  and  license  motion  picture  theatres,  and 

provide  more  adequate  lighting  and  policing 32          8 

Supervise  places  of  amusement;  suppress  indecent  vaude- 
ville, picture-slot  machines,  nickelodeons,  etc 32          8 

Parks  and  Public  Places 
Suppress  solicitation  on  the  streets  and  in  public  places 

(railroad  stations,  parks,  etc.)    36         9 

Supervise,  light  and  police  parks  more  adequately 32 

Patrons  antf  Prostitutes 

Prosecute  patrons  or  publicly  expose  24         6 

Abolish  fining  system  and  penalize  severely  32          8 

Prohibit  moving  about  of  old  prostitutes  and  recruiting  of 

new    16          4 

White  Slavery  and  Age  of  Consent 

Enact  state  white  slave  law 32         8 

Raise  age  of  consent   32          8 

*The    recommendations    listed   were    made   by   investigating    bodies    in    the    fol- 


l^CWal&t     a;  c*u  ucciii      j.  uiietuduuiat      J.  itL^uwi  S",      x 'ui-iuxiiu,      j.u.c«,     x< 

mond,  St.  Louis,  Schenectady,  Springfield,  Syracuse,  Toronto. 
See  bibliography,  infra,  for  fuller  reference  to  these  reports. 

34 


Actual 


Mr  of 

Percent  cities 
of  total  recotn- 
no.  of  mending 
cities      same. 
Courts  and  Police 

Establish  morals  or  night  court  and  extend  probation  sys- 
tem            28          7 

Appoint  police  women  or  extend  powers 40        10 

Commission 
Establish  Morals  Commission  or  Bureau 44        11 

PREVENTIVE  MEASURES 
Corrections  and  Custodial  Care 

Provide  for  rescue  and  reform   72        18 

Establish  reformatory  for  women 68        17 

With  hospital  and  industrial  training  facilities  56        14 

Provide  for  feeble-minded  women  and  girls  and  separate 

delinquents    from    semi-delinquents    44        11 

Children 

Keep  children  off  streets  at  night  and  suppress  rowdyism        16         4 
Exclude  messenger  boys  (or  minors)   from  night  service 

and  resorts   12          3 

Recreation  and    Comfort 

Open  up  social  centers  in  public  schools   32         8 

Develop    playgrounds    and    athletic    facilities;    establish 

comfort  stations  and  baths  36         9 

Extend    amusement    and    recreation     facilities;    appoint 

Comission    36          9 

Housing  and  Working  Conditions 

Prevent  overcrowding  and  unsanitary  conditions  in  homes        12          3 
Secure  minimum  or  adequate  wages  for  women  and  girls        28          7 
Require   social   or   welfare   secretaries   in    factories   and 
stores     and     better     provision     for     comfort     (rest 

rooms,  etc.)    44        11 

Supervise  employment  agencies   16         4 

Medical  Measures 

Make  venereal  disease  reportable   60  15 

Establish  or  enlarge  free  clinic  and  testing  facilities 52  13 

Prohibit  advertisements  and  sale  of  fake  cures  24  6 

Make  venereal  disease  a  bar  to  marriage  32  8 

Institute  compulsory  treatment  of  eyes  of  new-born 12  3 

Disseminate  knowledge  of  venereal  perils   28  7 

Empower  boards  of  health  to   close  houses  under  con- 
tagious disease  ban 12  3 

Education 

Provide  sex  education  72  18 

in  public  schools  to  pupils   56  14 

in  training  schools  to  teachers 20  5 

to  parents,  stressing  responsibility  24    .      6 

Emphasize  single  standard  and  chastity  36  9 

Extend  vocational  education   16  4 

25 


prosecution  of  owners  and  patrons  of  bawdy  houses  and  of 
prostitutes.  Eight  made  recommendations  as  to  white 
slavery  and  to  raise  the  age  of  consent;  fifteen  regarding 
courts  and  police  methods ;  eleven  establishing  morals  com- 
missions; twenty  pertaining  to  corrections  and  custodial 
care ;  five  protecting  children  from  immoral  influences ;  thir- 
teen providing  for  recreation  and  comfort;  eleven  relating 
to  housing  and  working  conditions;  twenty  pertaining  to 
medical  measures;  and  eighteen  providing  for  sex  edu- 
cation. 

REPRESENTATIVE  NATURE  OF  CITIES  COMPARED 

The  twenty-five  cities1  compared  included  one-fourth  of 
the  largest  cities  of  the  United  States  in  19102  (that  is, 
those  above  100,000),  and  all  of  them  with  the  exception  of 
Paducah  were  over  30,000.  Since  commercialized  vice  is 
practically  altogether  a  problem  of  the  larger  city,  recom- 
mendations from  25%  of  such  cities  give  a  representative 
result.  Again,  these  twenty-five  cities  had  in  1910  a  popu- 
lation of  over  eight  million  and  with  New  York  City,  where 
similar  conditions  were  being  brought  to  light  at  the  same 
time  through  an  investigation3  of  the  Bureau  of  Social 
Hygiene,  Inc.,  represented  an  urban  population  of  over 
twelve  millions.  This  was  distributed  over  sixteen  or  one- 
third  of  the  states  in  the  Union.  When  it  is  considered  that 
every  city  affects  a  considerable  rural  population  surround- 
ing it,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  concensus  of  recommenda- 
tions herein  given  sets  forth  very  accurately  the  sentiment 
of  the  United  States  regarding  the  vice  problem  at  the  time 
the  recommendations  were  made. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  also,  that  the  vice  problem 
has  been  found  to  be  the  same  in  practically  every  city,  so 
that  the  results  obtained  from  an  investigation  in  one 
municipality  applies  to  any  other.  It  is  not  like  the  hous- 
ing problem,  for  example,  which  must  be  studied  in  its 
relation  to  each  particular  city  where  the  problem  exists. 
There  is  no  need  either  to  make  investigations  regarding 
the  facts  of  vice  over  and  over  again,  except  as  some  par- 
ticular city  is  interested  to  find  out  what  progress  is  being 
made  there.  The  municipal  vice  investigations  undertaken 
during  1910  to  1915  presented  a  clear  picture  of  what  was 
typical  of  practically  any  urban  community  at  that  time, 

1Toronto  was  considered  sufficiently  American  for  the  purpose  in 
view. 

2  See  population  given  in  table  on  page  11. 

8See  Kneeland,  George  J.,  "Commercialized  Prostitution  in  New  York 
City,"  New  York,  Edition  of  1917. 

26 


and  the  legislative  proposals  put  forth  represented  their 
convictions  as  to  what  should  constitute  a  new  policy  of 
control. 

RECOMMENDATIONS  BROADLY  CLASSIFIED 

Not  all  the  recommendations  are  in  the  form  of  legisla- 
tion to  be  enacted.  The  first  one  listed ;  viz,  "Repress  evil 
and  enforce  laws,"  is  too  broad  for  any  classification.  It 
connotes,  however,  the  general  policy  of  repression  and 
prevention  which  is  outlined  in  detail  in  succeeding  recom- 
mendations and  which  was  to  supersede  the  then  preva- 
lent policy  of  segregation  and  toleration.  Other  recommen- 
dations, such  as  those  to  abolish  red  light  districts  and  to 
close  bawdy  houses,  were  evidently  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
away  with  the  prevailing  policy.  It  is  only  the  remaining 
ones,  therefore,  that  contain  the  elements  of  a  new  method 
of  vice  control.  These,  for  the  purpose  of  the  present 
study,  can  be  best  divided  into  proposed  state  laws  and 
board  regulations  and  such  measures  as  would  be  left  for 
municipalities  to  enact. 

In  the  following  chapter  the  state  legislation  indicated 
in  the  list  of  recommendations  will  be  dealt  with,  and 
certain  outstanding  measures  will  be  traced  historically  to 
show  the  growth  of  public  opinion  along  these  lines. 


27 


CHAPTER  IV 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  REPRESSIVE  STATE   LEGIS- 
LATION FOR  THE  CONTROL  OF  VICE 

State  legislation,  rather  than  local  measures,  has  been 
selected  as  a  basis  for  tracing  the  development  of  the  re- 
pressive policy  of  vice  control  for  two  reasons:  first,  be- 
cause all  the  states  and  territories  in  the  United  States  can 
be  included;  secondly,  because  state  laws  are  clearly  com- 
parable, well  codified,  and  readily  accessible.  This  is  not 
true  of  city  ordinances.  State  laws,  also,  are  more  basic 
than  local  ordinances  or  regulations.  They  reflect  a  deeper 
public  opinion  and  a  more  general  conviction,  so  that  sub- 
sidiary and  changing  sentiment  is  being  pushed  aside  in 
focusing  upon  statutory  enactments. 

In  tracing  the  development  of  a  repressive  policy  as  seen 
in  state  legislation  it  was  thought  well  to  omit  certain  in- 
direct measures1  of  control  suggested  in  the  recommenda- 
tions of  vice  commissions.  Generally  speaking  such  laws 
of  indirect  application  are  later  in  appearing  than  are  meas- 
ures of  direct  control,  such  as  a  law  prohibiting  the  keeping 
of  a  bawdy  house.  If  none  or  very  few  of  the  outstanding 
and  direct  statutory  measures  of  vice  control  were  in  exist- 
ence a  decade  or  generation  back,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that 
the  indirect  ones  were  likewise  lacking.  A  contrary  result 
would  be  altogether  misleading  so  far  as  being  indicative 
of  the  policy  of  vice  control  in  vogue  at  any  given  period. 
It  might  have  happened,  for  example,  that  a  rigid  inspec- 
tion of  tenements  in  the  residential  section  of  a  city  had 
been  inaugurated  for  the  express  purpose  of  more  strictly 
confining  the  social  evil  to  the  regular  bawdy  house  or 
district,  which  would  not  have  indicated  a  repressive  policy 
at  all  but  one  of  toleration.  Furthermore,  as  indicated  in 
Chapter  II,  indirect  and  subsidiary  laws  usually  cluster 
around  and  get  their  meaning  from  a  basic  law. 


iState  laws  of  indirect  application  omitted  in  this  chapter  deal  with 
indecent  vaudeville,  recreation  and  housing,  employment  agencies,  and 
sex  education.  Such  laws  are  examined  in  later  chapters. 


EIGHT  OUTSTANDING  VICE  LAWS 

The  following  statutory  measures  listed  in  vice  commis- 
sion recommendations,  were  selected  as  basic  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ascertaining  how  far  public  opinion  regarding  vice 
was  changing  in  the  direction  of  a  repressive  policy  at 
various  points  during  the  past  decade  or  generation.  To 
what  extent  laws  along  these  lines  had  been  enacted  at 
any  given  period  measures  the  progress  made. 

Age  of  Consent  law,  setting  age  below  which  sexual 
contamination  of  a  woman  becomes  an  act  of  criminal 
rape  for  the  man  involved. 

White  Slave  law,  prohibiting  compulsory  prostitution 
or  pandering. 

Injunction  and  Abatement  law,  a  civil  statute  making 
it  possible  to  close  a  bawdy  house  as  a  common  nuisance. 

Keeping  Disorderly  House,  a  criminal  statute  prohibit- 
ing same. 

Venereal  Disease  made  Reportable,  enabling  the  Board 
of  Health  to  follow  up  such  cases  and  to  control  the 
spread  of  the  disease. 

Venereal  Disease  a  Bar  to  Marriage,  prohibiting  the 
marriage  of  venereally  diseased  persons  by  requiring  a 
certificate  of  health  or  other  evidence  of  freedom  from 
such  disease. 

Venereal  Disease  Advertisements  Prohibited,  forbid- 
ding advertisements  by  doctors  purporting  to  cure  such 
diseases,  and  thus  preventing  the  activities  of  quacks. 

Reformatories  for  Women,  establishing  institutions  for 
adult  female  offenders. 

In  tracing  the  development  of  these  eight  outstanding  so- 
cial hygiene  stautes,  the  date  of  their  first  appearance  in  a 
given  state  were  the  dates  made  use  of,  regardless  of  subse- 
quent amendments  made  to  the  laws  and  regardless  of  law 
enforcement  difficulties.  It  was  felt  that  the  date  of  first 
appearance  marked  the  crystallizing  of  public  opinion  in 
the  direction  of  the  control  embodied  in  the  particular 
statute  and  as  such  should  be  used  as  the  index. 

Since  changes  in  age  of  consent  laws  are  in  the  direction 
of  raising  the  age,  a  definite  age  had  to  be  decided  upon. 
This  was  taken  as  fourteen  years,  which  is  the  age  most 
authorities  have  agreed  should  represent  the  minimum  in 
statutory  law,  common  law  having  long-  since  fixed  an 
age  of  ten.  Where  a  distinction  between  chaste  and  un- 
chaste women  is  drawn,  the  average  of  the  ages  set  by  the 
statute  was  used. 

29 


The  first  type  of  white  slave  law  to  manifest  itself  was 
against  the  panderer  or  procurer  of  women  for  purposes 
of  prostitution.  In  that  sense  it  is  used  here.  Pimping 
or  living  off  the  earnings  of  a  prostitute  is  usually  covered 
by  a  later  law.1 

Reportability  laws3  represent  the  first  effort  to  check 
venereal  disease  through  compulsory  legislation.  Some- 
times such  laws  were  passed  directly  by  the  state  legisla- 
ture. In  other  instances,  the  legislature  passed  what  was 
called  an  "enabling  act"  empowering  the  board  of  health  to 
make  venereal  disease  reportable  at  any  future  time  it  saw 
fit.  Only  actual  reportability  laws,  either  by  statute  or 
board  regulation,  are  listed  here.2 

Regarding  reformatories  for  women  a  distinction  was 
drawn  between  juvenile  offenders  and  adult  offenders  be- 
tween the  ages  of  16  (or  14)  and  25.  Only  those  laws 
dealing  with  adult  offenders  are  here  considered. 

The  first  appearance  of  these  eight  outstanding  laws  by 
states  and  by  years  is  listed  in  the  table  opposite  as  far 
back  as  1890.  Those  appearing  before  1890  are  designated 
"B  1890."  At  this  point  the  reader  should  turn  back  to  page 
eight,  where  a  graphic  chart  is  presented  to  show  the  de- 
velopment of  these  laws  on  the  basis  of  the  total  number  in 
force  year  by  year. 

SUMMARY  OF  DEVELOPMENT 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  common  law,  which  was 
brought  over  to  the  United  States  from  England  by  early 
settlers,  both  sets  an  age  of  consent  (ten  years)  and  brands 
a  bawdy  house  as  a  common  nuisance,  but  it  makes  no 
mention  of  the  other  measures  listed  in  the  table  opposite. 
It  is  logical  to  suppose  that  a  tightening  of  the  control  of 
vice  should  begin  where  common  law  leaves  off.  That  is 
precisely  what  the  graphic  chart  on  page  8  brings  out. 
Before  1890  twenty-nine  jurisdictions  had  already  set  the 
age  of  consent  at  14  years  or  above  and  twenty-five  had 

ipor  further  subsidiary  laws  covering  the  commercialized  aspects  of 
vice,  see  pp.  35-36  of  this  study  and  also  Worthington,  Geo.  E.,  "De- 
velopments in  Social  Hygiene  Legislation  from  1917  to  September  1, 
1920;"  Social  Hygiene,  Oct.,  1920,  vol.  VI,  No.  4,  p.  557. 

3Those  requiring  the  compulsory  reporting  of  venereal  diseases. 

2A  subsidiary  venereal  disease  law  closely  connected  with  the  re- 
portability  law  is  that  requiring  the  compulsory  examination  and  quaran- 
tine of  suspected  persons.  Similarly,  a  law  subsidiary  to  the  one  pro- 
hibiting the  advertisement  of  venereal  disease  cures  but  closely  connected 
is  the  one  forbidding  the  sale  of  remedies  without  a  prescription.  Both 
these  subsidiary  laws  are  later  in  appearing  but  they  have  become  quite 
important  to  the  proper  carrying  out  of  the  more  basic  laws. 

30 


Table  3. 

YEAR   OF   FIRST  ADOPTION,   BY   STATES   AND   TERRITORIES,   OF   EIGHT   OUTSTANDING 
SOCIAL  HYGIENE  LAWSI 


Name  of 
State  or 
Territory 

*o  g 

&i 

<u 

V 
en  P 

Sfi 
|* 

cL  j[J 

II 

,1 
II 

Venereal  Disease 
Advertisements 
Prohibited 

Reformatories 
for  Women 

Venereal  Disease 
Bar  to  Marriage 

Injunction  and 
Abatement 

Venereal  Disease 
Reportable 

Alabama 

1897 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1891 
B1890 
1895 
B1890 
B1890 
1918 
1907 
B1890 
B1890 
1905 
1896 
B1890 
1906 
1896 
B1890 
1892 
B1890 
B1890 
1891 
1914 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1919 
B1890 
B1890 
1893 
B1890 
B1890 
1896 
B1890 
1893 
1911 
1891 
1898 
1898 
1918 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1890 

51 
46 
29 

B1890 
1913 
B1890 
1897 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1895 
1912 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1905 
1907 
1913 

1912 
B1890 
1892 
B1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1904 
1899 
1895 
1893 
B1890 
1895 
B1890 
1901 
B1890 
1907 
B1890 
B1890 
1903 
B1890 
B1890 
1896 

1897 
1915 
B1890 
1913 
1905 
1909 
1911 
1911 
1910 
1911 

1919 

1911 

1919 

1919 
1919 
1913 

i913 
1915 
1917 
1919 
1914 
1917 
1917 

1919 
1919 
1918 
1918 
1917 
1916 
1915 
1919 

i919 
1918 

Alaska 

19i9 
1907 

1919 
1919 

1917 

;  *.  .'  .* 

California 

Connecticut  

Dist.  of  Col'bia. 

Hawaii 

B1890 
1911 
1908 
1905 
1906 
1913 
1916 
1906 
1913 
1910 
1910 
B1890 
1909 

Idaho  
Illinois  

1921 

B1890 
1918 
1921 

1908 
1911 
1909 

1919 
B1890 
1900 
1917 

1915 

B1890 
1917 
1915 

1965 

1919 
1899 

1915 
1915 
1915 
1909 
1913 
1918 
1918 
1891 
1918 
1911 
1915 
1913 
1918 
1921 
1917 
1911 

1921 

igis 

1913 
1918 
1919 
1918 
1918 
1918 
1917 
1914 
1919 
1918 
1919 
1919 
1919 
1921 
1918 
1917 
1918 
1918 
1919 
1919 
1914 
1918 
1919 
1919 
1921 
1919 
1919 
1919 
1918 
1911 
1912 
1920 
1919 
1918 
1913 
1918 

48 
0 
0 

Indiana  

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine  

Maryland  

Massachusetts  . 

Mississippi  .... 

1913 
1895 
1893 
1913 
1911 
1910 
1913 
B1890 
1913 
B1890 
1913 
1893 
1905 
1909 
1915 

Montana  

1905 
B1890 
1921 
1921 

19*19 

1921 

Nebraska  

Nevada  

New  Hampshire 
New  Jersey  .... 
New  Mexico  .  .  . 
New  York  
No.  Carolina  .. 
No.  Dakota  
Ohio 

1916 

1921 
1917 

1899 
1916 
1921 
1914 
1913 
1911 
1917 

1913 
1913 

1917 
1917 
1909 
1915 

1909 
B1890 

1909 
1917 

Bi890 
1913 

1917 
1921 
1913 

1919 
1913 
1913 

Oregon  
Pennsylvania  .  . 
Rhode  Island  .. 
So.  Carolina  .  .  . 
So.  Dakota  
Tennessee  
Texas  
Utah  
Vermont  
Virginia  
Washington  .  .  . 
West  Virginia  .  . 
Wisconsin  
Wyoming  

Summary: 
Through  1921  .  . 
Before  1910  
"Before  1890  

1918 
1913 
1913 
1907 
1913 

1916 
1913 

1913 
1921 

44 
4 
0 

1903 
1896 
B1890 
1898 
1890 
B1890 
B1890 
1893 
B1890 
1890 

49 
45 
25 

1909 
1896 
1911 
1911 
1910 
1910 
1903 
1911 
1911 
1890 

48 
22 
5 

1909 

1918 
1919 
1921 
1918 
1905 
1919 
1907 
1921 

29 
12 
3 

1919 

1919 
1913 

21 
5 
3 

1909 
1915 
1918 
1909 
1921 
1913 
1921 

20 
4 
0 

1Por  recent  citations  of  these  laws  see  Worthington,  op.  cit. 

2In  general,  date  is  given  when  age  was  first  raised  from  below  fourteen 
to  fourteen  or  above.  An  average  was  taken  where  distinction  between  chaste 
and,  unchaste  was  drawn. 

includes  only  pandering  laws,  not  those  against  pimping. 

31 


specific  statutes  against  the  keeping  of  disorderly  houses, 
while  the  remaining  laws  on  the  list  were  practically  non- 
existent. By  1910,  at  which  time  it  appears  that  a  definite 
public  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  suppression  of  vice  began 
to  show  itself,  46  jurisdictions  had  set  the  age  of  consent  at 
14  or  above;  45  had  a  specific  statute  against  the  keeping 
of  disorderly  houses ;  and  28  had  white  slave  laws.  Twelve 
had  passed  laws  prohibiting  venereal  disease  advertise- 
ments; but  only  four  had  injunction  and  abatement  laws 
and  had  made  venereal  disease  a  bar  to  marriage.  Six  had 
established  reformatories  for  adult  women,  and  no  state  had 
as  yet  made  venereal  disease  reportable. 

Taking  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  thirty  years  of  develop- 
ment, it  is  seen  that  the  eight  basic  social  hygiene  laws 
pictured  in  the  graph  fall  into  three  groups.  The  first 
group  covers  the  age  of  consent  and  keeping  disorderly 
house  laws,  the  two  that  are  oldest  and  have  their  roots 
in  common  law.  These  laws  have  in  the  past  generation 
spread  gradually  but  steadily  until  today  practically  every 
state  and  territory  in  the  union  has  such  laws.  The  second 
group  consists  of  the  three  laws  indicated  with  heavy  lines.1 
viz.,  the  white  slave,  injunction  and  abatement,  and  re- 
portability  laws.  This  group  of  laws  is  today  in  almost 
as  wide  use  as  the  first  group,  but  there  is  a  marked  differ- 
ence between  the  two.  The  second  group  has  developed 
faster  in  the  past  ten  years  than  the  first  group  has  in  the 
past  thirty  years.  The  third  group  consists  also  of  three 
laws,  i.  e.,  reformatories  for  women,  venereal  disease  adver- 
tisements prohibited,  and  venereal  disease  made  a  bar  to 
marriage.  This  group  of  laws  is  rapidly  coming  into  gen- 
eral use,  although  as  yet  only  about  one-half  the  states  have 
enacted  such  legislation. 

All  of  the  eight  laws  have  spread  during  the  past  decade, 
the  most  phenomenal  increase  being  noted  in  reportability 
laws  in  that  48  jurisdictions  have  enacted  such  laws  during 
the  ten  years.  The  sharp  upward  bend  of  the  reportability 
curve1  between  1917  and  1919  indicates  the  remarkable 
growth  along  this  particular  line  of  venereal  disease  con- 
trol during  the  period  of  the  participation  of  the  United 
States  in  the  world  war. 


1See  graphic  chart,  page  8,  supra. 

32 


CHAPTER  V 

A  YEAR'S  PROGRESS  IN  STATE  SOCIAL  HYGIENE 
LEGISLATION 

The  graphic  picture  just  examined  shows  the  change 
that  has  been  taking  place  in  public  attitude  in  the  past 
thirty  years  as  mirrored  in  the  eight  outstanding  measures 
of  vice  control  used  as  a  basis  for  comparison.  This  pic- 
ture, however,  merely  represents  the  background  of  what 
has  actually  been  happening.  In  addition  to  the  general 
adoption  of  these  eight  outstanding  repressive  measures 
and  the  universal  closing  of  red  light  districts,  many  sub- 
sidiary statutes  have  been  enacted  in  recent  years.  Just 
as  ten  or  twenty  years  ago  certain  measures  which  are  now 
outstanding  were  then  only  coming  in,  so  today  many  ad- 
ditional measures  are  being  added  here  and  there.  What 
these  are  and  how  many  in  number  will  be  seen  from  the 
following  summary  of  bills  bearing  on  vice  control  pro- 
posed and  enacted  in  one  legislative  session,  viz,  that  of 
1917.  This  year,  in  preference  to  any  more  recent  one,  was 
chosen  as  presenting  the  latest  typical  evidence  of  normal 
development1  along  the  lines  of  social  hygiene  of  legislation, 
in  that  the  inclusion  of  legislation  due  to  the  entry  of 
the  United  States  into  the  world  war  would  have  given  a 
distorted  picture.  The  year  1917  shows  a  phenomenal  ad- 
vance in  social  hygiene  legislation.  Comparison  should  be 
made  not  with  1916  (which  was  an  off  year  for  the  meeting 
of  state  legislatures)  but  with  19152  which  itself  showed  a 
decided  advance  over  preceding  years. 

SOCIAL   HYGIENE   BILLS    INTRODUCED   AND   LAWS    ENACTED 

IN   19173 

During  the  legislative  session  of  1917  forty-four  jurisdic- 
tions passed  social  hygiene  measures,  and  nearly  three  hun- 


entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  world  war  greatly  ac- 
celerated this  development. 

*Cf.  "Social  Hygiene  Legislation  in  1915,"  Social  Hygiene,  Vol.  II, 
No.  2,  April,  1916,  p.  245  ff. 

8A  comprehensive  digest  of  these  measures  together  with  a  tabular 
presentation  will  be  found  in  an  article  by  the  author  entitled  "Social 
Hygiene  Legislation  in  1917,"  Social  Hygiene,  Vol.  V,  No.  1,  January, 
1919,  pp.  71-82. 

33 


dred  bills  (or  an  average  of  seven  per  state)  were  intro- 
duced, of  which  over  one  hundred  and  sixty  (or  an  average 
of  about  four  per  state)  were  enacted  into  law.  Wisconsin 
led  by  introducing  thirty-six  bills  and  New  York  came 
second  with  seventeen,  but  out  of  the  seventeen  submitted, 
New  York  passed  only  three.  Wisconsin  passed  fourteen, 
Minnesota  submitted  thirteen  and  passed  twelve.  North 
Carolina  and  Oregon  each  passed  ten  out  of  twelve  and 
eleven  respectively. 

A  more  detailed  examination  of  the  bills  proposed  indi- 
cates the  tendency  in  recent  legislation.  Forty  measures 
were  introduced  relating  to  commercialized  vice.  Of  these, 
fourteen  referred  to  the  injunction  and  abatement  law,  ten 
were  against  pimping,  pandering,  and  white  slavery,  eleven 
had  to  do  with  vice  resorts  and  allied  places,  and  five  with 
such  miscellaneous  provisions  as  prohibiting  grafting  or 
the  abolition  of  the  fining  system.  Eighteen  referred  to 
state  reformatories  and  homes  for  girls  and  women.  These 
included  industrial  schools,  farms,  and  detention  places. 

Thirty-one  bills  against  sex  offenses  were  introduced. 
Eleven  related  to  adultery,  fornication,  and  lasciviousness ; 
twelve  to  age  of  consent  and  carnal  knowledge;  and  eight 
were  against  such  offenses  as  incest,  rape,  sodomy,  and 
seduction. 

Twenty-six  bills  came  up  referring  to  amusements,  pic- 
tures, literature,  and  recreation.  Of  these,  eleven  were  for 
the  purpose  of  regulating  amusement  places  and  dance  halls 
and  of  establishing  community  and  recreation  centers,  and 
fifteen  prohibited  immoral  and  indecent  shows  and  motion 
pictures  and  obscene  literature. 

Medical  measures  received  considerable  attention,  sixty- 
six  being  introduced  and  thirty-nine  passing  into  law. 
Eighteen  referred  to  the  compulsory  reporting  of  venereal 
diseases,  four  prohibited  fake-cure  advertisements,  sixteen 
related  to  making  venereal  disease  a  bar  to  marriage  or 
requiring  a  marriage  health  certificate,  thirteen  referred 
to  clinics  or  means  of  quarantine  and  control,  six  provided 
for  the  sterilization  of  defectives  and  the  feeble-minded,  and 
nine  covered  miscellaneous  subjects  such  as  the  licensing 
of  mid-wives,  forcing  the  evacuation  of  unsanitary  dwell- 
ings, providing  for  free  diagnosis  and  serum,  and  for  the 
investigation  and  dissemination  of  knowledge  of  venereal 
disease  perils. 

By  far  the  greatest  amount  of  legislation  proposed  and 
enacted,  however,  related  to  the  protection  of  children,  girls, 
and  women,  about  one  hundred  bills  being  introduced,  of 
which  seventy-four  passed  into  law.  Thirty-eight  related 
to  child  welfare  and  mothers'  pensions  (providing  for  the 

34 


support  of  dependent,  destitute,  neglected,  and  homeless 
children)  ;  seventeen  pertained  to  desertion,  illegitimacy, 
and  failure  to  support ;  twenty-six  provided  for  the  deten- 
tion and  care  of  defectives  and  delinquent  children  and 
girls;  and  twenty-two  restricted  or  regulated  the  employ- 
ment of  women  and  minors,  provided  for  their  protection 
and  comfort  at  work,  and  established  a  standard  or  mini- 
mum wage.  In  addition  to  these  measures  there  were  quite 
a  number  passed  that  dealt  more  strictly  with  industrial 
welfare  matters  and  have  for  that  reason  not  been  included 
here. 

Just  as  children  and  women  received  unusual  legislative 
attention,  public  welfare  in  general  and  sex  education  re- 
ceived practically  none.  Just  seven  bills  were  introduced 
and  only  three  passed  into  law. 

COMPARISON  WITH  VICE  COMMISSION  RECOMMENDATIONS  AND 
WITH  EIGHT  OUTSTANDING  VICE  LAWS 

By  comparing  this  summary  of  the  social  hygiene  legis- 
lation of  1917  with  the  recommendations  of  Vice  Commis- 
sions,1 it  will  be  seen  that  the  process  of  generally  adopting 
the  suggestions  there  made  is  going  forward  very  actively. 
In  one  year  were  proposed  forty  bills  relating  to  commercial- 
ized vice,  eighteen  to  state  reformatories  and  homes,  thirty- 
one  to  sex  offenses,  twenty-six  to  amusements,  sixty-six 
to  venereal  diseases,  one  hundred  and  three  to  the  protec- 
tion of  women  and  children.  The  emphasis  here  is  evi- 
dently shifting  from  repression  to  prevention,  not  that  the 
former  element  in  the  latter-day  standards  of  vice  control 
is  becoming  less  important  but  that  it  is  already  quite  fully 
established.  Preventive  and  constructive  measures  are  in 
the  air.  With  the  establishment  of  the  Division  of  Venereal 
Diseases  in  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service,  it  is 
to  be  expected  that  medical  measures  of  control  will  become 
more  and  more  adequate  to  the  problem.  It  is  significant, 
also,  that  so  much  attention  is  being  paid  to  the  protection 
of  women  and  children.  It  should  be  noted,  in  addition, 
that  seven  states  passed  laws  in  1917  relating  to  adultery, 
fornication,  and  lasciviousness.  Such  laws  have  been  dead 
letters  in  other  states  for  many  years.  Their  revival  may 
mean  that  public  opinion  is  beginning  to  demand  that  im- 
moral men  and  women  alike  be  dealt  with  severely.  But 
the  whole  problem  of  personal  immorality,  i.  e.,  stripped 
of  commercial  aspects,  is  seemingly  still  in  an  unsettled 
state. 

It  will  be  observed  that  only  82  out  of  the  291  measures 

aCf.  pp.  24-25. 

35 


introduced  in  various  state  legislatures  in  1917  covered  the 
eight  outstanding  laws  considered  in  the  last  chapter.  Two 
hundred  and  nine,  or  nearly  three  times  as  many,  were 
supplementary  to  these  eight  basic  ones.  Such  supple- 
mentary laws  are  all  in  the  direction  of  repressing  vice 
still  more  stringently  and  of  damming  up  the  source  of 
supply  by  providing  wholesome  recreation  and  intelligent 
instruction  as  to  matters  of  sex.  White  slave  statutes,  for 
example,  have  been  supplemented  in  thirty  to  forty  states 
by  laws  penalizing  the  activities  of  go-betweens,  such  as 
chauffeurs  and  maids,  the  transporting  of  a  person  for  pur- 
poses of  prostitution,  the  living  off  earnings  of  a  prostitute, 
and  other  laws1  along  similar  lines.  Keeping  disorderly 
house  and  injunction  and  abatement  statutes  have  been 
supplemented  in  about  twenty-five  states  by  laws  prohibit- 
ing the  use  of  a  conveyance  for  purposes  of  prostitution, 
receiving  or  offering  to  receive  another  into  any  place  or 
conveyance  for  such  purposes,  and  a  number  of  other  laws.1 
Besides  reformatories  for  adult  women  there  are  today  in 
nearly  every  state1  institutions  for  juvenile  female  offenders, 
and  the  indeterminate  sentence  is  being  increasingly  ap- 
plied. Reportability  laws  have  been  supplemented  in  43 
states  by  measures  providing  for  compulsory  examination 
and  quarantine  of  suspected  persons.  Besides  prohibiting 
the  advertisement  of  cures  for  venereal  diseases,  18  states 
now  also  prohibit  the  sale  of  remedies  by  drug  stores  with- 
out a  physician's  prescription. 


1Worthington,  George  E.,  "Developments  in  Social  Hygiene  Legis- 
lation from  1917  to  September  1,  1920."  Social  Hygiene,  Oct.  1920, 
Vol.  VI,  No.  4,  p.  557.  Cf.  especially  headings  to  tabular  analysii 
presented  in  the  article. 

36 


CHAPTER  VI 
MUNICIPAL  MEASURES  OF  VICE  CONTROL 

Having  traced  the  development  of  state  social  hygiene 
legislation  along  the  lines  of  the  eight  outstanding  meas- 
ures selected  from  the  recommendations  of  vice  commis- 
sions and  having  summarized  the  results  of  the  1917 
legislative  session  along  social  hygiene  lines,  a  study  of 
municipal  ordinances  and  policies  was  made  to  ascertain 
how  far  in  all  respects  the  vice  commission  recommenda- 
tions had  been  carried  into  effect  by  the  end  of  1917. 

MEASURES  IN  38  AMERICAN  CITIES,  1917-1918 

State  laws  do  not  tell  the  whole  story.  Often  these  are 
of  a  general  nature  or  merely  delegate  legislative  power 
to  cities  or  to  commissions  and  boards,  such  as  a  licensing 
commission  or  board  of  health.  To  get  a  comprehensive 
conception,  therefore,  of  how  far  public  opinion  in  the 
United  States  has  shifted  in  the  direction  of  repression  and 
prevention  in  respect  to  vice,  the  questionnaire  was  sent 
out  to  city  attorneys  and  librarians  in  one  hundred  cities 
of  over  thirty  thousand  population. 

As  a  basis  for  framing  the  questionnaire  an  analysis  of 
the  ordinances  of  the  more  important  cities  was  made.  The 
results  of  this  analysis  were  incorporated  in  the  question- 
naire in  such  a  way  as  to  elicite  from  prosecuting  officers 
and  other  informed  persons  a  ready  expression  of  opinion 
on  the  more  important  features  of  the  law  and  its  enforce- 
ment. 

The  eight  outstanding  vice  laws  were  omitted  from  the 
questionnaire  since  these  had  already  been  reviewed,  but 
a  few  additions  to  the  measures  suggested  by  vice  com- 
mission recommendations  were  made.  The  additions  were 
questions1  relating  to  the  control  of  the  use  of  telephones, 
automobiles,  and  massage  parlors  for  purposes  of  vice  and 
those  relating  to  the  operation  of  prostitutes  as  such.2 

In  practice  measures  dealing  with  the  regular  prostitute 

^Indicating  more  recent  developments  in  the  vice  problem. 
2Cf.  also  Worthington,  Geo.  E.,  op.  cit. 

37 


appear  in  abundance,  but  with  a  seeming  variety  of  form 
and  approach,  so  that  a  separate  study  was  made  to  ascer- 
tain the  usual  form  and  procedure.  The  results  showed 
that  the  apparent  complexity  of  such  laws  lay  chiefly  on 
the  surface.  Prostitutes  are  usually  apprehended  as  "com- 
mon prostitutes,"  "vagrants,"  or  "lewd  persons,"  or  for 
"soliciting,"  "night  walking,"  "loitering,"  "residing  in  or  fre- 
quenting" house  of  ill-fame,  or  for  "lewd  or  indecent  act." 
The  full  analysis  of  ordinances  and  policies  which  was 
incorporated  in  the  questionnaire  covered  the  following 

MUNICIPAL   MEASURES   RELATING   TO    SOCIAL   HYGIENE 

In  General 

Immoral  use  of  phones  Massage  parlors  inspected 

prohibited  

Against  Prostitute 

As  common  prostitute         For  lewd  or  indecent  act 

As  vagrant                           For  residing  in  or  frequent- 
As   night   walker ing  house  of  ill-fame      

As  lewd  person  For    loitering  

Moving  about  of  old  Fining  System 

prohibited  Heavy  penalty  

For  soliciting  

House  of  Ill-Fame 

Against  keeping  Sale  of  liquor  pro- 

Against  patrons  hifoited  

Against  owners  and  Minors    excluded  

proprietors  

Hotels  and  Rooming  Houses 

Hotels  licensed  License    revoked 

regulated  for  violation                     

inspected  Tin  Plate  ordinance            

baggage  required  Rooming  houses  registered 

bona-fide  register  re-  inspected                            

quired  persons  per  room 

time  limit  set   for  regulated                        

reletting  rooms  Tenements  inspected            

Saloons  and  Cafes 

Prohibition  Screens  or  curtains 

Restriction  of  license         prohibited  

Private   booths   prohibited Unattended   women 

Connecting  rooms  pro-  prohibited  

hibited  License   revoked   for 

violation  

Dance  Halls 

Licensed  of  supervised       Woman  officer  in  atten- 

Sale  of  liquor  prohibited  dance  

(thru  passes,  etc.)          

38 


Motion  Pictures  and  Amusement  Places 

Movies  censored                  Places   of  amusement 

supervised                          supervised 

licensed                              Indecent     vaudeville,     slot 

policed                               machines,     nickelodeons, 

good  lighting  required     etc.,  suppressed 

unattended   minors  pro- 
hibited                              

Parks  and  Public  Places 

Solicitation    prohibited  on 

streets                               Parks   well   patrolled 

in  parks                             well    lighted 

in  railroad  stations          closed  at  night 

Courts  and  Police 

Morals  or  night  court        Morals  Commission  or 

Policewomen  Bureau 

Vice   Squad  

Children 

Curfew  ordinance  Rowdyism  suppressed 

Minors   excluded   from  Illegitimate    father   forced 

messenger  service  to   support   child 

Recreation  and  Comfort 

City  recreation  commis-  Social  centers  in  public 

sion  schools 

Playground  or  athletic  Public  comfort  stations     . 

facilities  

Housing  Conditions 

Against    overcrowding        Against  unsanitary  con- 
ditions 

Working  Conditions 
In  factories  and  stores 

Welfare  secretaries  Night  work   for  minors 

Rest  rooms  for  women       prohibited 

Separate  toilets  for  women Employment  agencies 

supervised 

Medical 

Venereal  disease  reportable Board  of  Health  em- 
Free  laboratory  tests          powered  to  circulate  in- 
Free  clinics  provided          formation  on  venereal 

Treatment  of  eyes  of  new-  disease  perils 

born  compulsory  to  close   houses   of   ill- 

Midwives  registered  or  fame  under  contagious 

licensed  ........  disease  ban 

Sex  Education  Provided 

In  public  schools  to  pupils Through  lectures  to 

In  training  schools  to  parents 

teachers  

39 


Thirty-eight  cities1  answered  the  questionnaire,  so  that 
the  whole  may  be  considered  fairly  typical  of  what  meas- 
ures of  municipal  vice  control  the  United  States  possessed 
at  the  time  the  inquiry  was  made.  The  war  emergency 
has  resulted  in  even  more  radical  advances  since. 

The  use  of  telephones,  automobiles,  and  massage  parlors 
for  purposes  of  vice  is  a  comparatively  recent  development, 
so  that  it  might  be  thought  that  cities  would  be  somewhat 
behind  in  legislating  against  them.  The  results  of  the 
questionnaire  indicated  that  municipalities  have  not  been 
slow  to  take  such  new  developments  in  hand.  About  half 
of  the  cities  making  reply  had  instituted  measures  of  con- 
trol in  connection  with  these  later  developments. 

For  the  repression  of  commercial  prostitution,  the  returns 
indicated  that  practically  every  municipality  had  sufficient 
measures.  However,  the  fining  system  was  still  retained 
alongside  of  the  newer  system  of  imprisonment  looking  to 
ultimate  reformation,  or  of  segregation  in  the  case  of  feeble- 
minded women. 

Houses  of  ill-fame  appeared,  likewise,  to  have  been  suffi- 
ciently legislated  against,  both  as  regards  keeping  and  as 
to  those  running  or  patronizing  such,  and,  in  cities  where 
saloons  had  not  yet  been  closed  up,  there  seemed  to  have 
been  adequate  restrictive  measures  excluding  the  sale  of 
liquor  from  bawdy  houses. 

Measures  to  free  hotels  and  rooming  houses  from  vice 
had  not  been  universally  adopted  in  1917,  but  a  substantial 
beginning  had  been  made.  It  appeared  from  the  returns 
that  in  a  great  majority  of  cities  hotels  were  already  either 
licensed,  regulated,  or  inspected,  and  further  requirements 
could  be  quickly  made  and  enforced,  since  the  power  to 
revoke  a  license  for  non-compliance  with  requirements 
seemed  to  be  in  force  in  the  majority  of  cities.  The  setting 
of  a  time  limit  to  the  reletting  of  a  room  within  twenty- 
four  hours,  the  requirement  that  a  guest  have  baggage,  the 
passage  of  the  tinplate  ordinance,  although  such  provisions 
are  put  forth  by  authorities  as  essential  or  efficacious  in 
keeping  hotels  free  from  vice,  seemed  to  have  achieved  very 
little  recognition  up  to  1918.  Rooming  houses  were  regis- 
tered in  about  half  the  cities  interrogated,  and  were  in- 
spected in  two-thirds.  In  less  than  half  were  the  number 
of  persons  per  room  regulated.  Tenements  appeared  to  be 
inspected  in  about  two-thirds  of  the  cities  in  which  they 
exist. 

Half   the    cities    investigated    had    already    closed    their 

*Cf.  chart  accompanying  article  by  the  author  on  "Social  Legisla- 
tion and  Vice  Control."  Social  Hygiene,  July,  1919,  Vol.  V,  No.  3, 
p.  337. 

40 


saloons  when  the  municipal  questionnaire  was  sent  out. 
All  the  remaining  cities  that  replied  were  operating  under 
some  form  of  restricted  license  with  power  of  revocation 
for  cause  shown  vested  in  the  licensing  authority.  Even 
where  saloons  were  still  in  existence  at  the  time  of  the 
inquiry,  private  booths,  connecting  rooms,  screens,  and  cur- 
tains seemed  to  have  been  prohibited  in  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  cities,  but  unattended  women  appeared  in  a  bare 
majority  of  instances  to  have  been  allowed. 

Dance  halls  seemed  to  be  either  licensed  or  supervised 
in  the  great  majority  of  cities,  while  the  sale  of  liquor  or 
saloon  connection  appeared  to  be  generally  prohibited. 
The  fact  that  a  woman  officer  was  required  to  be  in  attend- 
ance in  half  the  cities  that  replied  showed  that  the  public 
dance  evil  was  finally  receiving  some  attention. 

Moving  pictures  were  censored  and  supervised  in  three- 
fourths  of  the  cities  that  returned  answers,  and  movie 
houses  were  licensed  in  practically  all  of  them.  Good  light- 
ing and  adequate  policing  seemed  to  be  generally  required, 
although  unattended  minors  were  prohibited  in  only  half 
the  cities.  Places  of  amusement  appeared  almost  every- 
where to  be  subject  to  supervision,  and  indecent  vaudeville, 
nickleodeons,  etc.,  to  be  suppressed  in  every  municipality. 

As  for  parks  and  public  places,  solicitation  seemed  to  be 
universally  forbidden,  and  good  lighting  and  adequate 
policing  in  parks  appeared  as  general  policies.  However, 
parks  were  closed  at  night  in  less  than  two-thirds  of  the 
cities  reporting.1 

Policewomen  and  morals  squads  seemed  to  be  in  vogue 
in  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  cities,  but  morals  courts  and 
commissions  appeared  quite  conspicuous  in  being  few  in 
number. 

Curfew  ordinances  seemed  to  be  in  force  in  less  than  half 
of  the  cities,  and  minors  appeared  excluded  from  messenger 
service  in  about  a  third.  Rowdyism  showed  itself  to  be 
universally  suppressed,  and  every  city  seemed  to  have  the 
means  of  forcing  an  illegitimate  father  to  support  his  child. 

As  for  recreation  and  comfort,  most  of  the  cities  appeared 
to  have  recreation  commissions  and  playgrounds  or  athletic 
facilities.  Social  centers  and  public  comfort  stations,  in 
marked  contrast  to  a  decade  back,  seemed  to  be  generally 
established. 

Housing  and  working  conditions  were  receiving  attention 
too.  Over  half  the  cities  under  consideration  had  made 
provisions  against  over-crowding  and  practically  all  of  them 
had  taken  steps  to  eliminate  unsanitary  conditions. 

JIn  this  connection  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  parks  are  un- 
enclosed so  that  it  is  impossible  to  shut  them  up  at  night. 

41 


Working  conditions  in  factories  and  stores  were  rapidly 
being  rendered  more  wholesome.  Employment  agencies 
were  in  practically  all  of  the  cities  reported  subject  to 
supervision.  Although  welfare  secretaries  appeared  to  be 
utilized  in  less  than  half  of  the  cities  reporting,  separate 
toilets  and  rest  rooms  for  women  were  in  existence  almost 
universally,  and  night  work  for  minors  appeared  to  be 
prohibited  in  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  municipalities. 

Medical  measures  of  vice  control  are  extremely  important. 
As  has  been  indicated,  several  are  not  mentioned  in  this 
tabulation.  Those  already  studied1  showed  that  unprec- 
edented progress  had  been  achieved  through  state  legisla- 
tion. The  returns  from  the  municipal  questionnaire  bore 
out  those  results.  In  about  three-fourths  of  the  cities  mak- 
ing replies,  venereal  disease  had  been  made  reportable,  and 
in  practically  as  many  the  compulsory  treatment  of  the  eyes 
of  new-born  infants,  to  prevent  blindness  through  gonococ- 
cus  infection,  had  been  inaugurated.  In  over  two-thirds 
free  laboratory  tests  were  provided  and  free  clinics  in  al- 
most as  many.  The  board  of  health  had  been  instructed  to 
inform  the  public  regarding  venereal  disease  perils  in 
nearly  three-fourths  of  the  cities,  and,  where  bawdy  houses 
still  existed,  had  in  about  the  same  proportion  been  em- 
powered to  close  such  under  a  contagious  disease  ban.  This 
ratio  likewise  applied  to  the  registration  and  licensing  of 
midwives. 

Regarding  sex  education  in  public  schools  to  pupils  and 
in  training  schools  to  teachers,  nothing  more  than  a  start 
was  indicated,  two  cities  out  of  twenty-six  (Pueblo  and 
Rochester)  having  inaugurated  measures.  More  encourag- 
ing progress,  although  very  little,  had  been  made  in  giving 
lectures  to  parents,  about  one-fourth  of  the  cities  that  re- 
plied having  undertaken  such  a  measure. 

MUNICIPAL  LAW  ENFORCEMENT  PROBLEMS 

In  addition  to  the  questions  as  to  law  enactment  just 
summarized,  certain  questions  were  addressed  to  these 
cities  in  the  matter  of  law  enforcement,  which  eight  per- 
cent of  the  thirty-eight  mentioned  as  an  urgent  need. 

In  over  half  the  cities,  political  corruption  interfered  with 
proper  law  enforcement.  The  connection  between  such 
corruption  and  the  social  evil  was  said  to  be  quite  marked. 
Local  bosses  were  interested  in  property  in  the  red-light 
district  or  collected  tribute  therefrom.  High  officials,  in- 

1Three  'of  the  eight  outstanding  laws  reviewed  in  Chapter  IV:  viz., 
renereal  disease  made  reportable,  venereal  disease  made  a  bar  to 
marriage,  and  venereal  disease  advertisements  prohibited. 

42 


eluding  police  chiefs  and  judges,  had  subjected  themselves 
to  such  influence  or  feared  the  crude  wishes  of  a  large  part 
of  the  electorate.  As  a  result  small  fines,  short  sentences, 
loose  police  administration,  and  other  perversions  of  jus- 
tice appeared  to  be  frequent. 

Business,  also,  was  frequently  observed  to  connive  in  the 
furtherance  of  the  vice  interests.  Certain  merchants  be- 
lieved the  open  town  was  good  for  business.  They  felt 
that  visitors  were  more  apt  to  patronize  such  a  city  and  to 
spend  money  freely  in  taking  in  the  '"sights."  Certain 
types  of  businesses  such  as  the  liquor  traffic,  were  directly 
connected  with  the  social  evil.  Big  corporations  or  banks, 
anxious  to  avoid  annoyances  or  gain  certain  privileges,  were 
said  in  the  cities  replying  to  side  with  corrupt  political 
elements. 

In  answer  to  the  question  as  to  what  measures  were 
effective  in  the  repression  of  vice,  the  injunction  and  abate- 
ment law,  law  enforcement,  and  police  vigilance  were  given 
in  order  of  importance.  Nearly  half  of  the  cities  spoke  of 
injunction  and  abatement,  one-fourth  mentioned  law  en- 
forcement, and  one-sixth  gave  police  vigilance.  An  inquiry 
into  the  amount  of  cooperation  exhibited  between  local, 
state,  and  federal  authorities,  elicited  the  response  from 
eighty  percent  of  the  cities  that  such  cooperation  was  either 
good  or  fair;  about  twenty  percent  mentioned  friction. 
Regarding  the  attitude  of  the  bench  it  appeared  that  the 
superior  courts  were  as  a  rule  strict  while  the  police  and 
city  courts  were  lenient  or  lax.  The  attitude  of  the  bar 
developed  that  in  nearly  'half  of  the  cities  shyster  lawyers 
were  to  be  found.  Only  about  twenty  percent  of  the  legal 
profession  appeared  to  be  in  favor  of  repression.  Returns 
indicated  further  that  about  fifty  percent  of  the  legislatures 
were  progressive,  twenty-five  percent  conservative,  and  an 
equal  percentage  held  that  there  were  laws  enough  on  the 
subject  of  vice.  The  attitude  of  local  administrations  ap- 
peared to  be  about  one-half  for  repression.  Some  few  more 
indicated  that  the  attitude  was  changing  in  that  direction, 
about  twenty  percent  were  still  uncertain  in  attitude,  and 
an  equal  percentage  still  clung  to  the  idea  of  toleration. 

These  facts  regarding  law  enforcement  problems  in  38 
typical  American  cities  in  1917-1918  give  a  clearer  idea  of 
the  big  part  unofficial  vigilance  and  law-enforcement  so- 
cieties1 can  and  do  play.  As  extensive  a  program  as  is 
herein  indicated  could  not  be  rendered  effective  without  the 
aid  of  these  unofficial  bodies,  constantly  stimulating  and 
educating  public  opinion.  It  was  such  bodies,  also,  which 

!Cf.  pp.  19-20,  supra. 

43 


had  previously  been  instrumental  in  arousing  the  public  to 
make  a  serious  study  of  vice  conditions. 

The  preceding  summary  of  municipal  measures  of  vice 
control  in  1917-918  makes  it  clear  that  a  repressive-pre- 
ventive policy  of  control  is  in  force  today.  Even  the  newer 
manifestations  of  vice  through  the  automobile  and  the  tele- 
phone are  being  repressed  by  restrictive  measures.  Cer- 
tain measures  suggested  by  vice  commission  recommenda- 
tions have  not  come  into  general  use,  such  as  affixing  heavy 
penalties  to  ordinances  prohibiting  prostitution,  requiring 
baggage  in  hotels  and  a  time-limit  to  reletting  rooms,  the 
adoption  of  name-plate  ordinances,  or  the  inauguration  of 
morals  courts  or  commissions ;  and  whether  such  measures 
are  impracticable  or  still  to  be  brought  into  general  use  is 
not  yet  clear.  On  the  whole,  however,  it  is  quite  apparent 
that  American  municipalities  have  taken  the  recommenda- 
tions of  vice  commissions  seriously  and  have  very  generally 
adopted  a  repressive-preventive  policy  in  place  of  the  segre- 
gation and  toleration  of  a  decade  back. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

~"  An  examination  of  the  vice  situation  today  in  the  light 
of  the  recommendations  mentioned,  furnished  a  measure  of 
how  far  a  new  policy  of  vice  control  has  been  carried  into 
effect.  The  new  policy,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  is  partly 
comprehended  in  the  word  repression.  The  abolition  of  the 
district  was  the  first  step  in  this  direction ;  but  repression, 
as  is  now  apparent,  extends  far  beyond  this  first  step,  im- 
portant as  that  was.  Not  only  have  two  hundred  American 
cities  closed  their  vice  districts  in  the  past  ten  years  but 
the  change  in  policy  from  toleration  to  repression  in  all 
!  its  phases  has  been  very  widespread  also. 

THE  REPRESSION  OF  VICE 

Sexual  vice  has  many  ramifications.  Even  with  the  dis- 
trict gone,  brothels  might  exist  unmolested  and  do  a  thriv- 
ing business.  Prostitutes  could  still  solicit  trade  in  public 
places  or  in  the  back  of  saloons,  taking  their  patrons  to  a 
hotel  or  furnished  room.  Hardened  prostitutes  might  con- 
tinue to  be  at  large  and  procurers  with  ease  furnish  new 
recruits  for  the  trade.  The  police  and  courts  might  still 
be  unable  to  cope  with  the  situation.  Repression  involves 
dealing  successfully  with  all  these  factors. 

Regarding  the  keeping  of  disorderly  houses  as  such,  prac- 
tically every  state  and  territory  now  has  a  criminal  law 
\  prohibiting  the  same.  In  addition,  numerous  cities  have 
enacted  special  prohibitory  ordinances.  Again,  today  forty- 
three  states  and  territories  (besides  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia) have  enacted  an  injunction  and  abatement  law  through 
which  a  citizen  can  bring  suit  in  equity — swift  and  sure — 
to  close  up  as  a  public  nuisance  any  place  used  for  purposes 
of  "lewedness,  assignation,  or  prostitution."  This  law  has 
been  very  effectively  used  and  since  it  strikes  at  owners 
(as  well  as  keepers)  has  made  these  more  careful  to  prevent 
the  use  of  their  property  for  immoral  purposes.  In  fact, 
the  mere  passage  of  such  a  law  has  in  a  number  of  instances 
resulted  in  the  wholesale  closing  of  recognized  houses. 
Furthermore,  the  study  of  prostitution  in  Europe  has 

45 


brought  home  to  people  in  this  country  the  fact  that  the 
disorderly  house  as  such  has  already  piactically  died  out 
there.  Under  pressure  of  enlightened  public  opinion  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  legal  measures  mentioned,  hundreds 
upon  hundreds  of  recognized  houses  have  been  closed  in 
recent  years  in  the  United  States.  Today  there  are  com- 
paratively few  in  existence.  It  may  safely  be  said  that  the 
regular  disorderly  house  is  passing  close  on  the  heels  of 
the  district. 

Along  with  these  unprecedented  changes  have  come  in 
scores  of  cities  the  suppression  of  disorderly  saloons1  and 
hotels;  the  prohibition  of  back  and  connecting  rooms  and 
booths  in  saloons1 ;  the  licensing,  supervision,  and  regula- 
tion of  hotels,  rooming  and  lodging  houses,  dance  halls,  and 
motion  picture  theatres;  and  the  enactment  and  strict  en- 
forcement of  ordinances  against  solicitation  on  the  streets 
and  in  public  places.  More  adequate  sentences  are  being 
imposed,  and  the  patron,  too,  is  beginning  to  feel  the  pres- 
sure of  a  changed  public  opinion. 

Thirty  years  ago  six  states  had  laws  prohibiting  traffic 
in  women.  Today  48  jurisdictions  have  such  a  law  and 
the  federal  government  has  used  with  great  effect  the  now 
famous  Mann  White  Slave  Act.  The  federal  government 
has  also  enacted  statutes  for  the  purpose  of  deporting  and 
excluding  immoral  immigrants.  Thousands  of  convictions 
with  severe  penalties  have  resulted  from  the  enforcement 
of  these  laws.  It  has  not  only  become  extremely  hazardous 
for  procurers  to  recruit  new  victims  for  the  brothel,  but  it 
is  becoming  increasingly  difficult  for  prostitutes  accom- 
panied by  their  pimps  to  move  from  city  to  city. 

Along  with  this  outpouring  of  repressive  legislation  have 
come  better  court  and  police  facilities.  Ten  years  ago 
special  night  courts,  morals  squads,  and  police  women  were 
practically  unheard  of.  Today  over  one-half  of  our  large 
cities  have  police  women  and  about  two-thirds  have  vice 
squads.  Both  are  doing  very  effective  work  in  securing  the 
more  rigid  enforcement  of  law  and  the  more  adequate 
supervision  of  amusement  and  public  places.  The  courts 
were  forced  to  be  lenient  with  prostitutes  as  long  as  no 
proper  place  of  trial  or  detention  was  provided.  Cities  are 
now  remedying  these  and  other  defects  and  the  experience 
of  night  courts  is  proving  very  satisfactory  indeed.  Here 
and  there  cities  are  beginning  to  appoint  moral  commissions 
to  supervise  and  coordinate  the  various  phases  of  the  work 
of  repression. 

Recent  years  have  seen  an  almost  complete  carrying  out 

before  prohibition  became  generally  effective. 
46 


of  the  repressive  program  outlined  in  the  recommendation  of 
vice  commissions.  From  being  considered  an  Utopian 
dream  this  program  has  become  a  working  reality.  Nor 
has  it  meant  a  littering  of  our  statute  books  with  just  so 
many  more  laws,  unenforced  and  unenforceable.  The  laws 
passed  have  been  very  carefully  drawn  and  are  uniformly 
carried  out.  A  careful  study  of  the  work  of  such  bodies 
as  the  Committee  of  Fourteen  of  New  York,  the  Committee 
of  Fifteen  of  Chicago,  or  the  Morals  Efficiency  Committee 
of  Los  Angeles,  shows  that  rigid  enforcement  is  just  as 
much  an  achievement  of  the  new  order  as  is  extensive  legis- 
lation. And  both  of  these  achievements  are  manifestations 
of  a  still  more  significant  change.  The  people  have  finally 
awakened  to  their  responsibility  in  the  matter.  They  are 
facing  the  issue  squarely  and  have  already  decided  that  at 
least  the  commercialized  aspects  of  vice  must  go. 

The  day  of  flagrant  exploitation  by  pimp  and  panderer 
is  past.  Commercialized  vice  has  been  finally  stamped 
as  illegitimate  and  illegal.  It  'has  been  forced  to  abandon 
its  first  line  of  entrenchments  in  the  district  and  recognized 
brothel.  It  is  now  giving  up  its  second  line  as  well.  The 
disorderly  saloon,  cafe,  and  cabaret,  hotel  and  apartment 
have  become  or  are  becoming  untenable  and  the  streets 
provide  no  vantage  ground.  Even  the  third  line,  the  fur- 
nished room,  the  call  and  road  house,  and  the  automobile 
is  coming  under  severe  fire.  The  casualties  have  been 
numerous  and  the  source  of  supply  has  been  greatly  cur- 
tailed. An  awakened  public,  a  better  equipped  and  more 
alert  police,  and  a  thorough  organization  for  law  enactment 
and  enforcement,  are  keeping  up  a  continual  frontal  of- 
fensive. 

These  gains  are  indeed  great.  The  social  hygiene  move- 
ment, however,  recognizes  that  under  given  conditions  re- 
pression has  meant  annihilation  up  to  a  certain  point  only, 
then  change  of  form.  But  it  is  meeting  the  new  conditions 
as  they  arise,  and  finds  that  repression  applied  there  means 
still  further  annihilation.  The  intensity  and  volume  of 
prostitution  are  being  continually  decreased. 

The  newer  manifestations  are  probably  the  most  signifi- 
cant signs  of  the  changed  status  of  vice.  That  the  social 
evil  might  be  "driven  in"  was  once  viewed  with  alarm. 
Now  it  is  understood  that  rendering  vice  elusive  and  clan- 
destine is  a  decided  gain.  The  deliberate  murderer  uses 
much  more  elusive  and  clandestine  methods  today  than  in 
the  days  of  the  clan,  when  the  taking  of  a  life  was  not 
frowned  upon.  The  fact  that  commercialized  vice  has  be- 
come considerably  less  aggressive  and  arrogant  simply 
illustrates  that  public  opinion  has  gone  far  in  stamping 

47 


it  as  unsocial  and  criminal.  How  far  and  'how  fast  the  work 
of  repression  can  be  pushed  is  naturally  open  to  question. 
But  no  irreducible  minimum  has  yet  manifested  itself.1 

THE  PREVENTION  OF  VICE 

Furthermore,  repression  is  but  one  part  of  the  new  policy. 
Remedial  and  constructive  measures  are  also  included. 
These  strike  still  deeper  at  the  roots  of  the  evil.  It  is  not 
enough  to  repress  vice  directly.  Provision  must  be  made 
for  the  rescue  and  reform  of  habitual  prostitutes,  for  the 
segregation  of  feeble-minded  women  and  girls,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  childhood,  for  more  wholesome  amusement  and 
recreation,  for  better  housing  and  working  conditions,  for 
the  treatment  and  prevention  of  venereal  disease,  and 
finally  for  sex  education. 

Prevention  is  the  second  part  of  the  new  program  out- 
lined in  the  summary  of  recommendations.  The  relation  to 
vice  of  lack  of  self-control,  of  feeble-mindeclness,  of  poor 
environment,  of  low  amusements  and  alcoholism,  of  con- 
gested rooms,  of  bad  working  conditions  and  low  wages,  of 
ignorance  and  false  standards,  is  now  recognized,  and  pre- 
ventive measures  are  being  worked  out. 

With  the  experiments  made  at  Bedford  Hills  and  Sleigh- 
ton  Farms  has  come  considerable  progress  in  establishing 
reformatories  and  rescue  homes  for  prostitutes  and  incor- 
rigible girls.  Many  of  these  have. hospital  and  industrial 
training  facilities.  In  addition,  a  number  of  states  are  pro- 
viding custodial  care  for  feeble-minded  women  and  girls. 

The  relation  of  juvenile  delinquency  to  vice  is  becoming 
more  clear  and  child  welfare  bureaus  are  being  established 
to  cope  with  it  and  related  problems.  Public  amusement 
and  recreation  facilities  are  being  extended,  such  as  social 
centers  and  play  grounds,  and  recreation  commissions  have 
been  formed  to  coordinate  activities.  The  most  convincing 
example  of  both  the  need  and  efficacy  of  such  measures  was 
exhibited  in  the  work  of  the  Commission  on  Training  Camp 
Activities,  which  during  the  war  supplemented  a  rigorous 
policy  of  vice  repression  by  supplying  wholesome  recre- 
ational and  social  opportunities  for  the  thousands  of  men 
in  concentration  camps.  It  was  the  first  time  in  the  world's 
history  that  a  nation  had  undertaken  to  deal  with  vice  in 
a  constructive  way  and  the  results  quickly  silenced  the 
doubters. 


*A  report  on  vice  conditions  in  New  York  City,  published  in  1918 
by  the  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene  giving  a  comparison  between  the  years 
1912,  1915,  1916,  and  1917  illustrates  conclusively  what  can  be"  ac- 
complished under  a  thorough-going  repressive  policy. 

48 


Housing  and  working  conditions  are  being  studied  as 
related  to  vice.  Measures  are  under  way  to  correct  over- 
crowding and  unsanitary  home  conditions.  A  number  of 
states  have  adopted  or  are  considering  a  minimum  wage 
for  women  and  girls.  Industrial  establishments  are  provid- 
ing rest  rooms,  better  sanitation,  and  welfare  secretaries 
to  supervise  the  moral  environment  of  employees. 

Great  advances  have  particularly  been  made  in  grappling 
with  the  problem  of  venereal  disease.  Ten  years  ago  prac- 
tically no  official  effort  was  being  made  toward  its  general 
control.  Today  every  state  and  territory  is  devoting  atten- 
tion to  it  and  the  United  States  Public  Health  Service  has 
established  a  special  Division  of  Venereal  Diseases.  Forty- 
eight  jurisdictions  have  made  venereal  disease  reportable. 
Over  40  provide  free  laboratory  diagnosis  and  treatment. 
Forty-eight  states  and  territories  subject  venereal  patients 
to  quarantine  where  necessary.  Twenty-nine  have  pro- 
hibited advertisements  of  fake  cures.  Twenty  jurisdictions 
in  a  few  years  have  made  venereal  disease  a  bar  to  marriage 
and  as  many  more  are  considering  the  matter.  Treatment 
of  the  eyes  of  the  new-born  is  becoming  compulsory  in  a 
rapidly  growing  number  of  cities.  Knowledge  of  venereal 
perils  is  being  widely  disseminated.  Special  venereal  bu- 
reaus or  divisions  have  been  established  in  about  one-third 
of  our  states.  And  boards  of  health  are  being  empowered 
to  deal  with  sources  of  venereal  infection  just  as  they  deal 
with  other  communicable  diseases.  The  whole  subject  is 
thoroughly  in  the  air  and  unprecedented  progress  is  being 
made. 

In  conclusion  little  need  be  added  except  to  emphasize 
once  more  the  fact  that  public  opinion  concerning  the  con- 
trol of  the  social  evil  has  changed  radically  in  the  past  gen- 
eration and  that  it  has  instituted  and  carried  into  effect  a 
new  policy.  Through  careful  investigations  and  studies  of 
vice  conditions  certain  appalling  matters  have  been  called 
to  public  attention,  and  the  recommendations  suggested  by 
the  various  investigating  bodies  have,  as  a  consequence, 
been  made  the  basis  of  a  new  policy  of  vice-control. 

How  far  public  opinion  has  gone  in  the  direction  of  re- 
pression and  prevention  has  been  made  apparent  in  this 
study.  After  asserting  that  the  recommendations  of  vice 
commissions  might  be  considered  as  outlining  a  new  policy 
of  control  in  the  United  States,  it  became  evident  through 
an  examination  of  state  laws  enacted  within  the  past  gen- 
eration that  such  an  assumption  was  well  founded.  The 
results  of  the  municipal  inquiry  into  existing  measures  of 
vice  control  left  no  doubt  on  this  score.  Federal  and  state 

49 


laws,  municipal  ordinances,  regulations  of  various  boards 
and  commissions,  bore  witness  to  the  fact  that  a  repressive 
and  preventive  policy  of  vice  control,  as  presented  in  vice- 
commission  recommendations,  has  become  generally  estab- 
lished in  the  United  States. 

So  long  as  no  particular  social  damage  was  manifest  to 
the  average  man,  he  was  tolerant  towards  what  he  consid- 
ered a  necessary  evil  and  felt  that  by  "segregating"  vice  he 
was  doing  all  that  could  or  should  be  done.  But  when  he 
learned  that  "segregation"  did  not  segregate  and  that  toler- 
ated vice  meant  exploitation  for  profit,  gross  demoralization, 
and  insidious  and  widespread  disease  (and  that  the  district 
wras  the  natural  breeding-spot  for  most  of  this),  he  change :1 
his  attitude  and  is  insisting  that  such  conditions  be  elimi- 
nated. 

Society  is  now  beginning  to  appreciate1  that  the  sex  in- 
stinct must  be  purified  and  rationalized  all  along  the  line 
before  the  heart  of  the  vice  problem  can  be  reached.  Re- 
pressive and  preventive  measures  already  put  into  force  are 
important,  but  the  greatest  preventive  of  and  safeguard 
against  immorality  must  necessarily  be  the  continence  and 
self-control  that  grow  out  of  a  higher  and  more  spiritual 
conception  and  knowledge  of  the  relation  of  sex  expression 
to  monogamic  love  and  responsible  parenthood. 


*Cf.  "The  Status  of  Sex  Education  in  Public  Educational  Institu- 
tions," by  Vivian  Hadley  Harris,  Social  Hygiene,  April,  1921,  pp  167  ff. 

50 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  bibliography  here  presented  is  selective  rather  than  exhaustive  v 
and  is  limited  in  the  main  to  the  field  of  commercialized  prostitution. 
Books  dealing  chiefly  with  such  subjects  as  Sexual  Ethics,  Sex  Psy- 
chology, Marriage  and  Divorce,  Public  Health,  and  Sex  Education  have 
not  been  included.  The  idea  has  been  to  present  an  annotated  list  of 
standard  'books  and  reports  on  commercialized  vice  and  to  give  a  few 
articles  especially  pertinent  to  the  present  study,  so  that  the  reader  who 
wishes  to  pursue  the  subject  in  greater  detail  may  be  guided  in  his  reading 
rather  than  left  to  the  mercies  of  an  exhaustive  bibliography.  The  bib- 
liography is  divided  into  four  sections,  viz.  standard  books;  municipal 
vice  reports;  publications  of  organizations;  and  special  articles,  reports, 
and  monographs. 

Standard  Books 

ADDAMS,  JANE.  "A  New  Conscience  and  an  Ancient  Evil."  Macmil- 
lan  Company,  New  York,  1912.  219  p. 

Illustrates  how  in  recent  legal  enactments,  in  improved  economic 
conditions,  in  moral  education  and  protection  of  children,  in  rescue, 
prevention,  and  increased  social  control,  a  new  attitude  towards  vice 
is  manifesting  itself. 

AMOS,  SHELDON.  "A  Comparative  Survey  of  Laws  in  Force  for  the 
Prohibition,  Regulation,  and  Licensing  of  Vice  in  England  and  Other 
Countries."  Stevens,  London,  1877.  542  p. 

Description  of  laws  and  police  regulations  existing  in  various  coun- 
tries in  1877  and  an  account  of  how  they  were  administered. 

BURGESS,  WILLIAM.  "The  World's  Social  Evil."  Saul,  Chicago, 
c.1914.  399  p. 

An  historical  review  of  problems  relating  to  the  social  evil  and  an 
account  of  the  marked  change  in  public  sentiment  taking  place.  Ap- 
pendices contain  summaries  of  important  vice  laws. 

FLEXNER,  ABRAHAM.  "Prostitution  in  Europe."  Century  Com- 
pany, New  York,  1917.  452  p. 

Description  of  prostitution  in  Europe  and  discussion  of  various  meth- 
ods of  handling  it  in  large  European  cities.  Based  upon  a  two  year 
study  of  actual  conditions.  Second  of  a  series  of  studies  made  by 
the  Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene. 

JANNEY,  O.  EDWARD.    "The  White  Slave  Traffic  in  America."    Na- 
tional Vigilance  Committee,  New  York,  c.1911.     196  p. 
Description  of  the  white  slave  traffic  in  the  United  States  and  of  the 
movement  for  its  suppression,  together  with  a  discussion  of  methods 
and  procedure. 

KNEELAND,    GEORGE    J.      "Commercialized    Prostitution    in    New 
York  City."    Century  Company,  New  York,  1913.    331  p. 
A  critical  analysis  of  vice  conditions  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan 
in  1912.    First  of  a  series  of  studies  made  by  the  Bureau  of  Social 
Hygiene. 

MALVERY,  O.  C.  AND  WILLIS,  W.  N.  "The  White  Slave  Market." 
Paul,  London,  1912.  290  p. 

Graphic  portrayal  of  a  world  traffic  in  women,  as  seen  in  Egypt, 
China,  and  other  eastern  countries  and  between  England,  Europe, 
the  Far  East  and  South  America. 

MARCHANT,  JAMES.     "The  Master  Problem."     Moffat,  New  York, 
1917.     369  p. 
Presents  world-wide   aspects  of  the   social   evil  drawn   from  wide 

51 


sources, — America,  India,  the  principal  European  countries,  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies.  A  prominent  Englishman's  analysis  of 
causes  and  remedies. 

MINER,  MAUDE  E.     "Slavery  of  Prostitution."    Macmillan  Company, 
New  York,  1919.    308  p. 

Deals  with  the  enslaving  influence  of  commercialized  vice  upon  the 
prostitute,  and  with  proposed  methods,  legislative  and  other,  for 
safeguarding  young  women. 

ROE,  CLIFFORD  G.     "Panders  and  Their  White  Slaves."    Revell,  New 
York,  1910.    224  p. 

Details  of  the  white  slave  traffic  and  an  explanation  of  the  artifices 
and  methods  of  panders,  as  seen  in  the  courtroom  by  an  eminent 
Chicago  attorney. 

SANGER,   WILLIAM   W.    'The   History   of    Prostitution."     Medical 
Publishing  Company,  New  York,  1913.    699  p. 

A  standard  treatise  tracing  the  development  of  prostitution  from 
earliest  times,  in  many  countries  and  races,  down  to  1897,  with  an 
appendix,  in  the  new  edition,  presenting  more  recent  data.  Written 
before  the  change  in  public  sentiment  from  segregation  to  repres- 
sion had  manifested  itself  and  thus  does  not  take  account  of  the 
significant  development  in  recent  years. 

WOOLSTON,  HOWARD  B.    "Prostitution  in  the  United  States"   Cen- 
tury Company,  New  York,  1921.    334  p. 

A  critical  examination  of  conditions  in  40  typical  American  cities  in 
1917,  with  an  introductory  chapter  on  the  complex  origins  of  the 
American  people.  Fifth  of  a  series  of  studies  made  by  the  Bureau 
of  Social  Hygiene.  Another  volume  dealing  with  the  influence  of 
the  world  war  on  prostitution  in  the  United  States  is  in  the  course 
of  preparation. 


Municipal  Vice  Reports 

(The  reports  listed  below  contain  the  findings  of  Vice  Commis- 
sions, official  and  unofficial,  investigating  conditions  in  the  cities 
concerned,  at  or  just  prior  to  the  date  of  publication  indicated. 
Many  of  them  contain,  also,  recommendations  or  suggestions  for 
remedying  the  conditions  disclosed.) 

Atlanta,  Ga.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1912. 

Baltimore,  Md.  Report  of  Committee  on  the  Social  Evil,  1911.  Report 
of  State-Wide  Vice  Commission,  1915. 

Bay  City,  Mich.    Report  of  Social  Purity  Committee,  1914. 

Bridgeport,  Conn.     Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1916. 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.    Report  of  Citizens'  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  1913. 

Charleston,  S.  C.    Report  of  Law  and  Order  League,  1913. 

Chicago,  III.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1911. 

Cleveland,  Ohio.  Report  of  Vice  Commission  of  Cleveland  Baptist 
Brotherhood,  1911.  Report  of  Committee  on  Vice  Conditions,  Fed- 
erated Churches  of  Cleveland,  1916. 

Columbus,  Ohio.     Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1919. 
Denver,  Colo.    Report  of  Morals'  Commission,  1913. 

Elmira,  N.  Y.  Report  of  Executive  Committee  of  Women's  League  for 
Good  Government,  1913. 

Grand  Rapids,  Mich.    Report  of  Vice  Committee  of  Forty-one,  1912. 


Hartford,  Conn.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1913. 
Honolulu.     Report  of  Committee  on  the  Social  Evil,  1914. 
Kawas  City,  Mo.    The  Social  Evil  in  Kansas  City,  Fred  R.  Johnson,  1911. 
Lafayette,  Ind.    Report  of  Committee  Authorized  by  the  Church  Coun- 
cil, 1913. 
Lancaster,  Pa.    First  report  of  Vice  Commission,  1913;  second  report 

1915. 

Lexington,  Ky.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1915. 
Little  Rock,  Ark.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1913. 
Louisville,  Ky.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1915. 
Minneapolis,  Minn.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1911. 
Montreal,  Canada.    Publications  of  Committee  of  Sixteen,  No.  1,  1918; 

No.  2,  1919. 
New  York  City.    Report  of  Committee  of  Fifteen,  1902;  second  edition 

edited  by  E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  1912. 
Newark,  N.  J.    Report  of  Citizens'  Committee  on  the  Social  Evil,  1913- 

1914. 

Paducah,  Ky.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1916. 
Philadelphia,  Pa.    Report  of  Vice  Commission,  1913. 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.    Report  of  Morals  Efficiency  Commission,  1913. 
Portland,  Me.    First  Report  of  Citizens'  Committee,  1914. 
Portland,  Ore.    First,  Second  and  Third  Reports  of  Vice  Commission, 

1912. 
St.  Louis,  Mo.    Brief  in  Support  of  Citizen's  Memorial  to  Board  of  Police 

Commissioners,  Committee  of  One  Hundred  for  the  Suppression  of 

Commercialized  Vice  in  St.  Louis,  1914. 

Shreveport,  La.    Brief  and  Recommendations  of  Vice  Commission,  1915. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y.    Report  of  Moral  Survey  Committee,  1913. 
Toronto,  Canada.    Report  of  Social  Survey  Commission,  1915. 

Publications  of  Organisations 

American  Social  Hygiene  Association . .  370  Seventh  Ave.,  New  York  City 
(This  association  publishes  a  quarterly,  Social  Hygiene,  and  a 
monthly,  The  Social  Hygiene  Bulletin,  which  from  time  to  time 
contain  articles  and  statements  regarding  various  phases  of  the 
social  hygiene  movement.  There  is  no  better  source  of  current 
information  on  commercialized  vice  and  related  subjects  than  is 
contained  in  the  publications  of  this  association.  For  conditions 
prior  to  1914,  at  which  time  the  American  Social  Hygiene  Asso- 
ciation was  organized,  access  should  be  had  to  the  following 
publications  now  no  longer  issued:  Vigilance,  Social  Diseases, 
and  Journal  of  the  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis.) 

Bureau  of  Social  Hygiene,  Inc 370  Seventh  Avenue,  New  York  City 

(This  Bureau  has  been  conducting  a  series  of  extensive  inves- 
tigations into  the  social  evil  in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 
The  most  important  of  the  Bureau's  reports  are  listed  in  the 
first  section  of  this  bibliography.) 

California  Law  Enforcement  League,  Annual  Reports. San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Chicago  Committee  of  Fifteen,  Annual  Reports Chicago,  111. 

Illinois  Vigilance  Association,  Annual  Reports Chicago,  111. 

New  York  Committee  of  Fourteen,  Annual  Reports New  York  City 

Utica  Committee  of  Twenty,  Annual  Reports Utica,  N.  Y. 

53 


Special  Articles,  Reports  and  Monographs 

Barringer  and  Platt,  "Survey  of  Venereal  Clinics  in  New  York  City," 

Social  Hygiene,  June,  1915  . 
Boston  Police  Department,  "Record  of  the  Enforcement  of  the  Laws 

against  Sexual  Immorality."     Boston,  1907-1913. 

Dillingham,  Senator  W.  P.,  "Report  to  Sixty-first  Congress  on  the  Im- 
portation of  Women  for  Immoral  Purposes,"  47-8,  49,  52. 
Exner,  Max  J.,  "Prostitution  in  Its  Relation  to  the  Army  on  the  Mexican 

Border,"  Social  Hygiene,  April,  1917. 
Finch,  Stanley,  "The  White  Slavery  Traffic,"  Senate  Document  No.  182, 

Sixty-second  Congress. 
Injunction   and   Abatement   Law    in    Indianapolis,    Note   and    Comment, 

Social  Hygiene,  Jan.,  1917. 
Johnson,  Bascom,  "The  Injunction  and  Abatement  Law,'1 'Social  Hygiene, 

March,  1915. 

Johnson,  Bascom,  "Next  Steps,"  Social  Hygiene,  January,  1918. 
Kneeland,  George  J.,  "Commercialized  Prostitution  and  the  Liquor  Traf- 
fic," Social  Hygiene,  January,  1916. 
Legislative  Committee  to  Investigate  White  Slave  Traffic,   "Wisconsin 

Vice  Committee  Report,"  Madison,  1914. 
Massachusetts,  "Report  of  the  Commission  for  the  Investigation  of  the 

W.  S.  Traffic,  So-Called,"  1914. 
Mayer,  Joseph,  "Passing  of  the  Red  Light  District,"  Social  Hygiene, 

April,  1918. 
Mayer,  Joseph,  "Social  Hygiene  Legislation  in   1917,"  Social  Hygiene, 

January,  1919. 
Mayer,  Joseph,  "Social  Legislation  and  Vice  Control,"  Social  Hygiene, 

July,  1919. 
New  York,  "Presentment  of  the  Special  Grand  Jury,  Investigating  the 

White  Slave  Traffic  in  New  York  City,"  1910. 
Pfeiffer,  T.  N.,  "The  Matter  and  Method  of  Social  Hygiene  Legislation," 

Social  Hygiene,  January,  1917. 
Reynolds,  James  Bronson,  "International  Agreements  in  Relation  to  the 

Suppression  of  Vice,"  Pan-American  Scientific  Congress,  Proceed- 
ings, 1917,  Vol.  9,  Sec.  8,  Part  I. 
Spingarn,  Arthur  B.,  "Laws  Relating  to  Sex  Morality  in  New  York  City," 

New  York,  1915. 
"Venereal   Disease  and  the   Segregated   District,"   Note  and   Comment, 

Social  Hygiene,  July,  1916. 
War  and  Navy  Departments  Commission  on  Training  Camp  Activities, 

"Standard  Forms  of  Laws  for  the  Repression  of  Prostitution,  etc.," 

Washington,  D.  C,  1919. 
Whitin,  Frederick  H.,  "Obstacles  to  Vice  Repression,"  Social  Hygiene, 

April,  1916. 
Worthington,  George  E.,  "Developments  in   Social  Hygiene  Legislation 

from  1917  to  September  1,  1920,"  Social  Hygiene,  October,  1920. 


54 


VITA 

Joseph  Mayer  was  born  February  17,  1887,  San  Antonio, 
Texas.  Secondary  education  received  in  New  York  City. 
Before  entering  University  of  Texas  in  1907,  worked  for 
seven  years  in  industry,  learning  several  trades.  While 
studying  engineering  at  the  University  of  Texas,  was  As- 
sistant in  Physics  and  Mathematics,  and  in  1910  Assistant 
Professor  at  Southwestern  University  (Texas),  where  he 
received  the  A.  B.  degree  (highest  honors)  in  1911.  Next 
two  years  Jackson  Scholar  and  Perkins  Fellow  at  Harvard 
University,  pursuing  graduate  studies  in  Industrial  and 
Social  Economy,  under  Professors  Emerton,  Palmer,  Pea- 
body,  Tau'ssig,  and  others,  receiving  the  M.  A.  degree  in 
1913 ;  1913-1914  was  Instructor  in  the  Engineering  Depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Texas;  1914  to  1916  Production 
and  Service  Manager  for  motion  picture  company ;  1916  to 
1918  Secretary  of  the  Investigation  of  Prostitution  in 
America;  1918-1919  Director  of  War  Camp  Community 
Service  activities.  During  1916-1917  continued  graduate 
studies  at  Columbia  University  under  the  Faculty  of  Politi- 
cal Science,  taking  courses  under  Professors  Devine,  Gid- 
dings  and  Lindsay,  and  also  pursued  a  law  course  in  La 
Salle  Extension  University.  Since  1918  occupied  as  Con- 
sulting Engineer  and  Economist,  serving  several  large  con- 
cerns ;  at  present  with  the  National  Industrial  Conference 
Board. 

Lecturer  for  the  World  Peace  Foundation,  Council  of 
National  Defense,  League  to  Enforce  Peace,  and  during  the 
war  a  Four-Minute  Man.  Member  Am.  Soc.  M.  E. ;  Pres. 
Soc.  Ind.  Engr.,  New  York  Chapter.  Author  of  numerous 
articles,  and  the  following  books:  "Bigger  Men  in  Better 
Jobs" ;  The  Business  Training  Corporation,  New  York,  92 
pp.,  1920.  "Practical  Experience  with  Profit-Sharing  in 
Industrial  Establishments";  Research  Report  No.  29,  Na- 
tional Industrial  Conference  Board,  Boston,  86  pp.,  June, 
1920.  "The  Metric  versus  the  English  System  of  Weights 
and  Measures" ;  Research  Report  No.  42,  National  Industrial 
Conference  Board,  Century  Company,  New  York,  261  pp., 
October,  1921.  "A  Digest  of  "The  Metric  versus  the  English 
System  of  Weights  and  Measures'  " ;  Special  Report  No.  20, 
National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  New  York,  12  pp., 
December,  1921. 


55 





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